(CHAPTER 11)
26. "Look [re'eh]! Today I am setting before you a blessing or a curse--
And, not or: He is only offering one set of directions; what we do with them determines which they will be for us.
27. "a blessing if you listen to [and obey] the orders of YHWH your Elohim, which I am laying on you today,
28. "but a curse if you do not heed he orders of YHWH your Elohim and reject [turn aside from] the path that I am ordaining for you today, in order to follow after other elohim with which you have not been familiar.
If we follow them, we will be blessed; if we do things our own way, by our own logic, or only halfway, we cannot help but receive a curse. Who would look up driving directions on the Internet, and start to follow them, but then skip from the first to the third, and expect to end up in the right place? Because our ancestors picked and chose which of YHWH’s commandments they wanted to obey, we ended up as the “lost sheep of the House of Israel”. To end up where we belong, we need to follow the directions completely. Been familiar: We must not worship anything our righteous ancestors did not, and they never worshipped a man as an elohim. He has told us He is jealous, and Pin’has received an eternal covenant for having the same jealousy on behalf of YHWH’s relationships with Israel. He wants us to have this jealousy also. Otherwise we are cheating on Him. He is making His heart known to us through these rules. They are not just hoops to jump through, strange though some of them seem at first glance. They are about knowing who He is so that we can have an intimate friendship with Him. They are about learning how to love Him—how to be the kind of people He can relate to. If we only learn them by rote and carry them out mechanically, we may look right, but we will not be right. The blessing YHWH sets before us is the relationship with Himself. Are we after having Him live in our midst, or just a religious experience? Though the consequences may take many unpleasant forms, the actual curse is not having His presence with us. Most people are familiar with at least some of these commandments. Some in Christianity use them to build doctrines of a god-man or personal salvation. Humanists like the command to love our neighbors as ourselves. But they are rarely used in the context He intended—that of Israel dwelling in His Land with Him at our core--so what should be a blessing becomes a curse instead. They become only codes of morals rather than a way to love YHWH. Not that immorality is better, but when morality mixes Torah with men’s thought and is not used for the right purpose, it is not profitable either. It may end up making us serve the state rather than YHWH as our provider. His commands are meant to stay whole and intact. When we obey them out of love for Him and for one another, He responds by upholding His side of the covenant. What we give priority to and what we reject determine whether we are going after YHWH or another elohim. Some of the most upstanding, decent, loving people choose to obey only parts of the Torah, and this does not mean they are bad people, but they are doing it for other reasons. The curse is only for those who turn aside from the way. To turn aside from a path, one must first be walking on it. We cannot judge anyone by the rules of this path if he has never been on it. The commands resonate with and hit home for those who are Israel and whose time it is to take up this mantle. Those who are not on this path are under neither blessing nor curse. Christianity as a system may have left the path, but do not consider individual Christians to be under this curse. The nations have their own judgment to undergo, and they play a large role in the prophetic scenario. Someone has to be there to support Israel and return it to its rightful place. (Yeshayahu 49:22-23, etc.) But to find YHWH, this is where Israel must look; these commands are the path.
29. "Now what will take place is that, when YHWH your Elohim has brought you into the Land you are entering to take possession of, you will designate the blessing as [being] on Mount Grizim, and the curse on Mount Eval.
Grizim: means "cuttings off", as opposed to Eval, which means "a bald stone mountain", symbolizing the fruitfulness of the one choice (from which useful trees could be cut) and the barrenness of the other. There are no valleys for Israel; there are only these two mountains: if you are not obeying Torah, you are an idolater. YHWH does not want us hobbling between two opinions. (1 Kings 18:21) Choose one or the other! Remain teachable, but commit to one path or the other. Know where you need to be, and invest 100% there, for what you keep back can very easily be stolen. It is even more respectable to be completely evil (Rev. 3:15), because we can more easily see where that road leads. If you are not ready to commit to community, walk in the left hand for a while and let yourself get beaten down. Then it can be a path to repentance. But indecision is a path to nowhere; the indecisive have already made up YHWH's mind to oppose them; He stays on the mountaintops.
30. "Aren't they on the other side of the Yarden, following the direction of the sun's going [down], in the land of the K'naanites who dwell in the Aravah opposite Gilgal near the oaks of Moreh?
Gilgal: south of Yericho, very close to the Yarden; oaks of Moreh: near Sh'khem (Nablus today), which sits between the two mountains, near the geographical center of the Land, close to the border between Efrayim and Menashe (in what was later Samaria). Moreh means "teacher". It may have been named after one of the patriarchs who lived here.
31. "--Because you will be crossing over the Yarden in order to go in and take possession of the Land which YHWH your Elohim is giving to you. You will [not only] take possession of it, but also settle in it.
Do not just empty it out, but fill it with something useful to YHWH. (Compare Matithyahu 12:43-45.)
32. "But be careful to carry out all the prescribed tasks and privileges which I am laying in front of you today."
CHAPTER 12
1. "These are the prescribed rituals and legal procedures that you must guard in order to carry [them] out in the Land which YHWH, your ancestors' Elohim, is giving you to occupy all the days that you live above the ground:
Earlier Moshe had told Israel what rules had to be followed before we could enter the Land (chapters 4-6); now he is telling us what we must do to stay there and to maintain possession of it. Taking the Land is only the beginning. Staying in the Land will not be easy; we need all the training we can get before we enter, or we will not last long there. Staying in the Land and keeping the rules are inseparable. Efrayim was expelled for idolatry and for preferring the ways of other nations, but Yehudah went into captivity specifically because of the way it interacted with the Land. They defiled it by neglecting the rest the Land needed every seven years because they wanted to make money or did not want to trust YHWH to that extent. And the Land spewed them out. This Land is made for people who love YHWH with all their heart and love one another. These rituals and procedures teach us how. If we are not carrying them out, we are not loving YHWH. Love is not a feeling; it is what we do. Like someone in an arranged marriage, the emotional attachment will come after we develop the relationship, but the commitment is expressed through obedience. That is how we prepare to return. We have much to guard, and we need many allies to do so. YHWH is offering us community now for that purpose. Walking in Torah in unity with the Land and with one another is what will keep us there. Eating unleavened bread for seven days will help us take and retain the Land. That sounds very strange in comparison with the way our terrorist enemies train to keep it for themselves. But “the weapons of our warfare are not carnal” (2 Corinthians 10:4); training our children to keep the Torah will make them stronger than training them so early to shoot M-16s. Above the ground: it could mean simply “on the soil”, but in context the emphasis is on continuing as long as you are alive. These will also keep you above the ground! It also tells us that as long as Israel exists—as long as any of us is above ground--this Land is never meant to be turned over to any other people. While there are some things we cannot do in their fullness outside the Land or when there is no Temple, this should not mean that we ignore them altogether. Most importantly, we should never divide them into ritual vs. spiritual, moral, or whatever other category would make some of them appear unnecessary. They are all interdependent. Some who do this intend only to explain the lack of animal sacrifice today as being because it would be inconsistent with Yahshua’s “finished work”. They expect that they can leave the rest intact when doing so. But the Appointed Times of YHWH (Ex. 12:21ff), the Sabbath and the festivals, are also categorized as “prescribed rituals”. (6:1ff) So we cannot do away with one without doing away with others. (Mat. 23:23) If we cannot do the very thing yet, we can take them as far as we can, and still learn from them. The Jews commonly call this a zeker –a way of remembering or mentioning something we cannot do properly while in exile. While even those inside the Land cannot bring a Passover Lamb, since there is no Temple right now, but even outside the Land we can eat unleavened bread for seven days. (Ex. 16:3) This is one of many of these prescribed rituals that actually command us to remember certain things: the day we came out of Egypt, including our own comings-out from Egyptian-like systems that enslaved us (Ex. 13:3; Deut. 5:15; 16:3ff); the Sabbath (Ex. 20:8); YHWH’s commandments (Num. 15:39-40); not to fear earthly threats (Deut. 7:18); that YHWH tests us (8:2); that it is He who is to receive credit for any blessings we receive (8:18); what angers Him (9:7; 24:9), and what Amaleq did to those who lagged behind (25:17). If we cannot remember the events ourselves, we should ask our elders. (32:7) Torah is the “cud” we need to chew so we can recall them, and it takes multiple stomachs—the whole community—to fully process them and bring forth the milk that feeds the young. Somehow eating the unleavened bread will help us bring back the memory of things our ancestors experienced. It is not just an analogy if we allow it to be more—if we remember YHWH when we eat it. If we cannot recall something when we need it, we do not really know it. So He gives us memory aids. (Num. 15:38) By re-enacting these procedures as closely as we are able outside the perfect context, we can take steps toward “enacting them again” as law in Israel. It is those most experienced, even if they have not done things completely the way they must be done in the Land, who will be best suited to teach others when the time comes to tighten up the rest of the way. Who would choose those who have never even learned the Torah? We need to go right up to the border if we cannot yet get in, so that when Y’hoshua (Yahshua) comes to take us in, we will be ready and have only a few small steps to catch up with His full intent.
2. "You shall utterly destroy all the places in which the nations you are going to dispossess served their elohim on the uplifted mountains and hills, and under every flourishing tree.
Utterly destroy: literally, it is a Hebrew idiom that uses the word for "destroy" in two different forms for emphasis. The precise term means to cause to disappear; i.e., make their sites unrecognizable, to prevent yourself from even thinking about these things. The command applies once we get to His Land, but we can begin to practice by lowering the "high places" that surround us while we are still on our present soil by at least staying out of the pagan worship places (undermining them by our lack of support, even when our cousins get married or our grandparents' funerals are held there). Or by teaching truth by our example, showing from Torah that their priorities and perspective are wrong, rather than respecting them, and warning people away from them as a watchman on the wall (Y'hezq'el 33). Hills are mentioned as well as mountains, representing not just the major errors, but any form of compromise.
3. "You shall also pull down their altars and break down the upright pillars they have erected. Burn their sacred groves with fire, and chop down the idols of their gods, and blot out their names from that place.
Note that the first command specifically given for when they arrived in the Land was to totally eradicate paganism. No artifacts are to be left, and indeed archaeologists at the city of Ay uncovered a stratum full of gold and silver ornaments that were simply covered up when that level of civilization there was burned, so apparently Y'hoshua and his generation obeyed this command to the letter. There is also a microcosm of the Land in our personal and corporate lives, from which we must eradicate any idols we harbored when unaware of what they were or that others inculcated into us. Upright pillars: carried on today through steeples, a tradition which began so that pagan temples could be seen from a distance. Constantine changed all pagan temples into churches, and their structure remained the same. Pull them down so we are not tempted to rededicate to YHWH what He does not want. As long as they are there, we will think about them, and what we pour mental energy into, we are likely to soon become physically involved with as well. Worry is the biggest waste of energy (as Yahshua says in Mat. 6:27), which actually shortens our lives rather than lengthening them. By seeking first His Kingdom, we will be prepared to deal with whatever else may come along. Another big waste of energy is misplaced anger. Yes, deal with it, but then let it go. (Letting it go without dealing with it in the right way forms a root of bitterness.) If anything consumes your mind and you lower yourself before it, you are worshipping it. Even teaching the "right" things out of season empowers the wrong things. Sacred groves: Christmas trees do burn very well!
4. "You shall not deal in the same way for YHWH your Elohim,
Step one when we again possess the Land (rather than merely dwelling in it) is to tear down the mosques and churches there, and even beautiful buildings like the Baha’i center. He does not say we have to take joy in doing away with such things that others have invested their whole lives in. But allowing them to stay there would be as bad as leaving pictures of a former boyfriend or girlfriend in a prominent place in your home after marrying another. He hates the minarets and steeples, because they are one more form of the idolatry that was in the Land when Y’hoshua took it. Don’t do that to Him!
5. "Because you shall resort to the place where YHWH your Elohim shall choose out of all your tribes in order to put His Name there for His dwelling-place, and come there.
He does not even want to be worshipped in the same places the pagans used. Though churches make their meeting places available to us free of charge, this would suggest an approval of the wrongs that are taught there. Instead, seek out the place He chooses. Enquire after it. It was not a place of any man's choice. He does not yet say where this place will be. That would not be revealed to them until David's time (1 Chron. 21:28; 2 Chron. 3:1), although those closest to YHWH seemed to often have an inkling that there was something special about this place. But even while in exile, the etymology of the word for "place" tells us where we can get as close as we can to His ideal: it is from the word for "rise up", so we must seek Him in places that raise us higher. Out of all your tribes: Seek Him in the place where Israel is gathered together around Torah. And seek Him in places where His Name is recognized, not where the names of pagan elohim (God, Lord, or those from any other language) are substituted for His. These are places where we can find enough of His presence to follow on toward the fuller manifestation of it there. In a more general sense today, look for where He wants you to be, and go there. Whether the dwelling place ends up being a temple or a tent this tent, we must prepare to live in His presence by learning how to live with Him, just as a long-time bachelor needs to learn different habits appropriate to living with a woman before he marries.
6. "That is where you must bring your ascending offerings and your slaughtered sacrifices, your tithes and contributions from your hand, the things you vowed to offer, and your free-will offerings, as well as the firstborn of your flocks and herds.
By specifying one meeting-site where all Israel can unite in worship, He automatically precludes anyone using the old pagan worship sites, just because they are already built and convenient to use, as Constantine did, creating the "church" out of the marriage of Christianity and paganism. This is where we bring all of our tithes when the Temple is standing and the priesthood is in order. Until then, the place to bring your tithes (which are agricultural) and offerings (any other kind of voluntary gift) is not to the pastor, bishop, rabbi, etc., but to places where Israel is ascending, where YHWH's name is recognized, and where all the tribes of Israel are represented. But first and foremost, bring yourself to His altar as a living sacrifice, which for now He accepts in lieu of actual Temple services. (Rom. 12:1-2)
7. "That is also where you may eat before the face of YHWH your Elohim, and will rejoice in all that you set your hand to undertake--[both] you and your households with which YHWH your Elohim has blessed you.
Eating them alone at home is not "as far as we can go". The community table is very important, especially in the absence of an altar. We must not show up empty-handed; we must not only bring something, but rejoice, or we are robbing YHWH. We are responsible also to partake of the contributions we bring, in the same place to which we bring them. Today the most obvious way we can remember the true tithe is to fund the place where we are taught and where we sit together to eat in joy. This is a much-abused concept today, but it is the closest we can come at present. It is part of being prepared to return. If we rebel against it now, then when we do enter the Land we will retain the same attitude of "This is mine and I get to decide where it goes."
8. "You must not do any of the same kind of things we are doing here today--everyone [doing] whatever is right in his own eyes,
Doing: the context that follows indicates that this is referring chiefly to offering sacrifices on a variety of altars, wherever it seemed logical or convenient to the individual to do so. Yahshua said He did nothing but what He saw the Father doing. (Yoch. 5:19, 30) We, too, need to see things YHWH's way, through the eyes of a unified people.
9. "(since you have not yet entered the resting-place and inherited property that YHWH your Elohim is giving to you).
Conversely, one of the reasons we have not entered is because we continue to insist on doing things that seem right to us as individuals. Our own sets of likes and dislikes are often what stands in the way of forming the close communities that will prepare us to live in His Land. We must not think so much about “what is right for me and mine” as what the Torah defines as right for all Israel. We are not held quite as guilty for things still being a bit messy while we are outside of the Land. But in this case, the "doing right in his own eyes" was not referring to all kinds of wickedness, but simply making offerings to YHWH wherever one wanted to--based on emotional response, lack of an ideal setting, etc. If those who were walking in the presence of their Elohim had to raise the bar, how much more we who are so much further removed from the ideal setting? Efrayim is still in the same situation today, and YHWH tolerates it for the most part, but it is not always going to be this way. We will be held to the highest standard when we arrive there. So we had better start acclimating ourselves to it and make our mistakes while we still have the room to do so and the leisure to prepare.
10. "But when you [do] cross over the Yarden and settle into the Land which YHWH your Elohim is giving you to take possession of, and He grants you a respite from all your enemies on every side, so that you dwell in security,
11. "then there shall be a place where YHWH your Elohim shall choose to establish His Name; that is where you shall bring everything I am commanding you--your ascending offerings and your slaughtered sacrifices, your tithes and contributions from your hand, and all the best of the things you have vowed [by choice] to give to YHWH.
12. "Then you will rejoice in the presence of YHWH your Elohim--you and your sons and daughters, male and female servants, as well as the Levite who is within your gates, since he does not have a share or inherited property as you do.
Rejoice: literally, brighten up! This is a command--and we are to make sure everyone else does, even the Levite who should be the one teaching you! You cannot leave your children home, and everyone who comes must participate. If one is not joyful, he should not be there!
13. "Watch yourself carefully so you will not offer up your ascending offerings in [just] any place that you may see [fit],
14. "but [only] in the place that YHWH your Elohim shall choose within one of your tribes--that's where you shall raise your ascending offerings and carry out all that I am ordering you [to do].
That one tribe would turn out to be Binyamin.
15. "Now you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your gated cities--whatever your soul desires--in accordance with the prosperity that YHWH your Elohim gives you; both clean and unclean [people] may eat of this, just as [they would eat] a gazelle or deer;
Gazelle or deer: the salient examples (possibly because the most common) of animals that are clean but not acceptable for sacrifice. Since YHWH is more concerned with what our diet teaches us than with what we actually eat, we need to look for the picture here. Gazelles and deer are not domestic like flocks and herds from which Temple offerings are drawn. They are wild, and though they may eat from human hands with a fence in between, they shy away from humans when no safety barrier is present. These animals are pictures of people who do not submit to a holy community; therefore we can partake of their teachings, for they may be valid and important, bringing us life. But only a community forms an altar fit for "food for YHWH to consume". And even here we see a reminder of holiness, for these animals would not be trapped inside the city walls, but they must be brought there to be slaughtered. They are not kosher if they are shot somewhere else, for they would be torn and unfit for consumption. (Lev. 17:15) They must still be slaughtered in the manner of the Temple animals; there is just no requirement to give a portion of wild animals to the Levites. Part of any animal suitable for the Temple--an ox, lamb, or goat (even if not being brought as an offering)--must be brought to them, when we are in the Land. (v. 21; Lev. 17:3ff) This is because at that time people rarely took animals from their flocks merely to have dinner; they would be slaughtered for a reason--occasionally as hospitality for a guest, but most often as worship of one's deity. So an animal suitable for YHWH's altar may not be slaughtered elsewhere in His Land, lest the wrong message be communicated. If one of the firstborn animals has a defect, it cannot be taken to the sanctuary to offer, as usual, but is treated like these wild but clean animals. (15:19-22) However, in such a case, it would still seem especially important to invite the Levites who lived in a nearby Levitical city to this feast (vv. 12, 19) since normally the firstborn was his food. If we neglect to give the Levite his rightful share, we have murdered the animal in YHWH's eyes.
16. "just don't eat the blood; pour it out on the ground like water.
YHWH repeats this in verse 23 and in many other places in the Torah, probably because He knew it would be one command that people would tend to forget. This is what distinguishes a clean animal from one that is specifically kosher (acceptable for consumption). This (with an even stricter requirement--that it be killed according to Jewish traditional methods which were only an extrapolation on the extra commands) is reiterated again in Acts 15. Since the soul or life of the animal is in the blood, eating blood is saying, "My life is my own; this has nothing to do with YHWH."
17. "Within your gated cities you may not eat the tithe of your grain, wine, or oil, or the firstborn of your flock, nor any of the offerings you have vowed to give, nor your freewill offerings nor the contribution from [what] your hand [is able to give];
These tithes and offerings would be brought to the Temple at the feasts of Unleavened Bread, Shavuoth, or Sukkoth to be eaten in the context of the whole community (or at other times, among representatives of every part of Israel, at the “federal” slaughter site, not just the local one). Again, these commands apply only to Israel; only the feast of Sukkoth is required of the nations. (Z’kharyah 14:16-18) This is not the first tithe, which would go directly to the Levitical storehouses. (Mal. 3:10) That is holy and can only be eaten by the owner if he redeems it with a 20% surcharge. (Lev. 27:30ff)
18. "rather, you must eat them in the presence of YHWH your Elohim, in the place that YHWH your Elohim shall choose--you and your son or daughter, male or female servant, as well as the Levite who is within your gates--and brighten up in the presence of YHWH your Elohim!
Unlike many extrapolations upon tithes today, these were purely agricultural and were actually partaken of by those who grew them after the priest got his portion. The important thing is that it was shared. The fellowship involved in the meal is what YHWH is after. This is what makes it holy according to His commandments. He will be in attendance in an especially meaningful way when this is the case. Bring back to Him the part that says, “Thank you.” That is why slaughtering it at home is not accepted. All of Israel is meant to hear of what YHWH has done for us. Nor may just the man of the house go and leave his family at home. We need to make sure everyone is celebrating—even the servants--and is in agreement.
19. "Only take special care to not neglect the Levite as long as you live on the Land.
20. "When YHWH your Elohim enlarges your territory as He has promised you, and you say, 'I am going to eat meat' because your soul craves meat, you may eat meat to your soul's content.
To your soul's content: according to any wish of your soul. Eat meat: something they were not doing in the wilderness, since they did not know how many animals they would need to offer to YHWH. But there is no requirement of vegetarianism in the Torah!
21. "If the place in which YHWH has chosen to establish His Name is too far away from you, then you may take [something] from your herd or flock, with which YHWH has provided you, as I have ordered you. You may eat whatever your soul desires within your gates.
This only applies outside the original borders of the Land given to Israel. (v. 20) What is too far is not a subjective decision. There is no place within the Land proper that YHWH considers too far from Yerushalayim.
22. "You may eat them just as the gazelle or deer are eaten; the clean and unclean alike may eat of them.
23. "Just be firm about not eating the blood, because the blood is life, and you may not eat the life along with the meat.
The life: literally, soul, which gives a better angle on why we should not take it into ourselves. The soul of another type of being should not be mingled with ours.
24. "You shall not eat it; you shall pour it out on the ground like water.
You do not have to go all the way to Yerushalayim to slaughter anything except the types of offerings YHWH has made mandatory, but no matter where you are, you may not eat the blood.
25. "You shall not eat it, in order that it may go well with you and with your children after you, because you will be doing what is right in YHWH's eyes.
Only bloodless meat may be eaten by a holy people so that all that is in your life may be "well-placed". The converse is that if we do eat blood, it will not go well with our children.
26. "Only your holy [gifts] that belong to you must you take up and come to the place that YHWH shall choose.
Even if one lives outside the Land, if he wants his slaughter to be unto YHWH, it must be brought to the gathering of all Israel rather than done at home.
27. "Offer up your ascending offerings--the flesh as well as the blood--on the altar of YHWH your Elohim. Now the blood from your slaughtered sacrifices is to be poured out on the altar of YHWH your Elohim, but you may eat the meat.
Only a few offerings are fully consumed by fire; most are cooked and eaten there after the priest gets his cut. Eating together is a large part of worship in the Torah!
28. "Be careful to obey all these things that I am commanding you, so it may go well with you and with your children after you into perpetuity, because you will be doing what is proper and right in YHWH's eyes.
29. "When YHWH your Elohim does cut off the nations from before you, wherever you go in to dispossess them, and you take their place and dwell in their Land,
30. "Be especially careful that you are not brought down by imitating them [even] after they are annihilated from your presence, by enquiring after their elohim, saying, 'In what way did these nations serve their elohim, so I can do the same?'
Brought down: or "ensnared". The context especially emphasizes not eating as they eat. This is an allusion to the Midyanite women who invited the Israelite men to a dinner at which, by the way, they made a blessing to Ba’al, and this led to curiosity about other ways Ba’al was worshipped, and eventually this came all the way into the heart of the Israelite camp, and only Pin’has’ spear put an end to it. By imitating their ways, you would be keeping them alive—their spirit, at least—even after destroying them. Know your enemy, but do not look deeper into its ways than you have to, just to satisfy your curiosity. Archaeologists must be especially careful about this, and the Northern Kingdom radically failed in this area. We mixed ideas about YHWH with existing pagan festivals that were purportedly replaced by “Christian” ones, but the masses, who did not know why the names of their festivals had suddenly changed, preserved many of their old ways. Even to “give them new meanings”, they had to inquire into how they were done. This step may be the one that took us further off course than any, because even the idea of a trinity came from the same type of syncretism.
31. "For YHWH your Elohim you must not do things in the same way, because every [kind of] thing that is an abomination to YHWH--just what He hates--[is what] they have done unto their gods--because to their gods they have even burnt their sons and daughters with fire.
None of their ways will help you understand better what YHWH is like. They should rather disgust us, for all of this eating and sexual worship led to killing their own children in one way or another. When you are enticed by their menu, your own children end up on it. YHWH had to give us more religious duties after the incident with the Midyanite women, just to keep us out of trouble of this sort.
32. [13:1 in Hebrew] "Whatever I have ordered you to do, be very careful to carry it out; do not add to it or diminish it."
Do not inject self (your own ideas) into any of His commandments! And don't "scrape away" (the literal meaning of diminish) any layers of meaning just because they do not like them or find them convenient. Much of what Yahshua said addresses things men had made up and added to the Torah (e.g., Mat. 5:17) Do not change it to suit yourself in any way; that would be tantamount to "making YHWH in your image". Experience His words in their fullness just as they are written. Take it as far as possible, or you will not partake of the fullness that Yahshua promised.
CHAPTER 13
1. "[Just] because there arises among you a prophet or one who has [prophetic] dreams, and presents you with a distinguishing sign or token as proof,
This is still in the context of 12:32, and provides a particular example of not adding to what YHWH has said. This chapter is strong medicine given to us thousands of years ago for situations we still deal with today. Prophet: literally, "one who raves". But the dreamer seems to believe the vision to be from YHWH. Among you: this is literally someone from our innermost circles who rises to prominence, so he is someone known to many, and is confirmed or established as a leader in one of our communities, someone with proven authority who has risen from among our ranks. He is not someone unstable who "blows into town" from no one knows where, so we are inclined to trust him. Sign: Something that seems to provide evidence. Israel's tendency is to seek signs, but Yahshua called this wicked. (Mat. 12:39; 16:4) Instead, He said, we are responsible to know the Torah we already have. Miracles are not always evidence of YHWH's leading. Signs are only meant for clarification when there is doubt or ambiguity, not where there is already an unmistakable command. And the times when YHWH allowed people to ask for signs, He was usually dealing with someone immature or from a household not steeped in Torah, as in the case of Gid'on (Judges 6:37ff). After a certain point of maturity, to ask Him for a sign is more of an insult than a blessing. Token: a wonder or portent, but from a root word meaning beautiful or pleasing. So this is something that seems positive, and it actually looks genuine in every way. It is something outstanding, something new, something out of the ordinary--which most people would find too fascinating to ignore. But we have already been warned not to be gullible. (11:16)
2. "and the sign or token comes true which he foretold for you, saying, 'Let's go after other elohim with which you have not [previously] been familiar, and let's serve them!',
He appeals to our innate attraction to novelty. He proves beyond doubt that we should do this, so this is nothing to sneeze at—yet YHWH tells us to “sneeze at it” anyway, because the Torah gave us a greater litmus test: has Israel ever known this elohim? If the signs conflict with YHWH’s word, which will we follow? It is a temptation to eat of the tree of further knowledge than we’ve been offered. Elohim: mighty ones—the things we give most recognition to, not just what we think of as “gods”, but anything that competes with YHWH, like the “almighty dollar”. His words should alert us to the fact that it is not legitimate. It should be obvious that this is not the way to go, but because it is a prophet, YHWH knows this can throw us off, because we feel that we must have respect for such people who seem to have a corner on spiritual things that we ordinary folks have no right to question. Constantine knew this. While Yahshua’s students were what would be called “lay people”, who most often were hardly “religious” at all, let alone scholars. Constantine, on the other hand, took established professional priests, whose fathers before them had been priests, from the temples of the sun and turned them into Christian priests , since these were the people who had authority in the people’s eyes. So YHWH puts His very clear, direct stamp of approval on our right—no, responsibility—to not listen to such talk:
3. "[does] not [mean] you should not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer of dreams, because YHWH your Elohim is testing you, to discern whether you love YHWH your Elohim with all your heart and with all your being.
The mere fact that it comes true is not evidence that what the prophet communicates is YHWH's will. This is a test. It almost seems cruel, as if He is taking advantage of our immaturity. But He wants to see what we will do when we seem to have alternative options. This includes times when His own Messiah is presented in a way that seems to let us "off the hook" from keeping Torah. The Passover has already been given us as a sign (Ex. 13:8), as has the Sabbath (Ex. 31:17) and the Torah in general (Deut. 6:8). Moshe provided tokens of his authority. (Ex. 4:21) We should not need additional signs or tokens. They only give us an excuse to follow our own hearts. Who do we really love--YHWH or ourselves? Will we be obedient to His word even if miracles seem to discredit it?
4. "You must walk after YHWH your Elohim, and hold Him in awe, and treasure His commandments, and obey His voice, and serve Him, and cling closely to Him.
Hold Him in awe: or "fear Him"--not be frightened of Him as such, for He loves us, but of His removing Himself from us, which holds infinite terror. He is glad to be a sanctuary to us, but if He disconnects us from His presence, we could hardly even continue to exist, and to turn to other elohim is a sure-fire way to provoke Him to such anger. But obeying this verse is the way to pass the test. If he has already said to keep His commandments, what does he mean by "serve Him"? We serve Him and cling to Him by serving one another and clinging to the community He has placed us in.
5. "Moreover, that prophet or dreamer of dreams shall be executed, because he has made a declaration with the intent of turning you away [in rebellion] from YHWH your Elohim, who brought you out from the land of Egypt and rescued you from the dungeon of slavery--to compel you to leave the path in which YHWH your Elohim commanded you to walk. So you shall utterly consume away the evil from your midst.
Utterly consume: or purge. We might wonder if it is just for YHWH to have him killed if He “hired” him to administer the test. We do read of other instances in which YHWH allowed a lying spirit in the mouths of His prophets to drive a wicked king to put himself in mortal danger. (1 Kings 22) This is reminiscent of the elder prophet in 1 Kings 13:18ff who claimed an angel had given him a message that conflicted with what He had told a younger prophet, and the younger prophet ended up dying for his disobedience. Why didn’t the elder prophet die for misleading him? How is this different? He didn’t tell him to worship another elohim, but he did tell him to disobey the One he knew. He may not even have been an Israelite. But the younger prophet never seemed to have considered the possibility that someone might lie in YHWH’s name. These very verses should have made him more cautious. But YHWH does not want such confusion in His camp. YHWH is just, and would not have given such a delusion to His spokesman if the prophet himself had not opened a door for it somewhere along the line. His heart was already inclined to want a change, or he would not have been able to include himself in the “let us go after other elohim.” Such words should not come from the mouth of an Israelite. Had the doors been kept guarded, YHWH would not have used him like this, and no one would have been deceived. The gravity of the consequence shows how serious it is to YHWH—not something to flirt with—and behooves us to know His word well enough to recognize error immediately. This should not lead us to shun all prophets, for some are true, and those we must heed. This is one reason YHWH puts us in community: to guard one another with various forms of discernment; if you choose to walk alone, you are required to know everything, but even then we are without excuse, with so many more Bible study tools at our disposal than our forebears had. But what is controversial about this is not the execution of the prophet, but how this applies to Yahshua. The Northern Kingdom is responsible to follow him—as he walked in Torah. He is our kinsman redeemer, but not an elohim. The best way to deal with the “god-man” concept is to remember that this is something Israel never knew. Israel did know other prophets did the same things, even to the point of raising the dead. He may have done them more or better, but it was Israel’s neighbors who saw their heroes or kings as gods or demi-gods; our leaders were never worshipped as if they were YHWH. This is a test of whether we truly love YHWH; no matter what the signs are, say, “No,” for Yahshua never intended his signs and miracles to lead us to cast the Torah aside. To this day many Jews discredit Yahshua altogether because some from the other tribes tried to make the Messiah into a deity. Some expect to unite with Yehudah on the basis of Yehudah’s accepting Yahshua’s deity, but do not hold your breath! Yehudah as a people will never fall for that, because Moshe told us to be sure we never think of YHWH in a human form. (Deut. 4:12-16) He wants to be understood through His commands. What does make Yahshua special is that he did this very well.
6. "If your brother--your mother's son--or your daughter, or [even] the wife of your bosom, or your companion who is [as close] as your own soul--allures you deceitfully, saying, 'Let's follow and serve other elohim, which neither you nor your fathers have been familiar with'--
Even a "soul-mate"--one with whom the lines are so blurred that they can hardly tell you apart--may not be tolerated if he tries to loosen the first commandment and persuade you to do the same. The alternative he presents may look much like the Elohim we already know, but will always end up with YHWH not being put first--or sharing His glory with another. (Compare Yeshayahu 48:11.) But this is more subtle and closer to home than many of us realize. In context of 12:32, the false prophet is teaching us to worship something we cannot know through the words spoken to Moshe (and the prophets which point Israel back to them). Yahshua Himself has been turned into this! In the Torah we can find a deliverer, the seed of a woman, who puts haSatan underfoot. (Gen. 3:15) We can find a redeemer of Israel who seeks YHWH's face and lays down his own life for the sheep. (Ex. 32:32) We can find a ruler of unified Israel whose enemies are under his feet. (1 Chron. 17:8-10) We can find a king of Israel who is called the son of Elohim. (Psalm 2:7; 1 Chron. 28:6) We find a prophet through whom YHWH raises the dead (1 Kings 17:17-22) and one who feeds a multitude with very little food (2 Kings 4:42-44). All of these, Israel is familiar with. Yahshua did all of these, and these signs validated His authority. He took them further than anyone else had, provoking many to jealousy: he kept Torah perfectly, did more miracles, fed more people than Elisha had, raised the dead after days, not just hours, and will rule not just Israel but the whole world. He took the Torah to a deeper level, but nothing that He taught was foreign to it. But a "God" who becomes man? A holy trinity? A "mother of God"? These are nowhere to be found in Israel; instead, these are ideas that the pagans who surrounded and overran Israel had. Their gods were always appearing as men and women and sometimes even marrying mortals:
7. "[that is], elohim of the peoples who encompass you on every side, whether nearby or far away, from one extremity of the earth to its other end,
He leaves no stone unturned in telling you where in the world you may not worship another elohim. It does not just apply in the Land. There is no exception anywhere. Like Yahshua, those through whom YHWH did miracles prior to him had their work carried on by their students. But none of them ended up being worshipped. Why did it turn out differently with Yahshua? Marcion even said Yahshua was a better god than His "cruel" Father! Yes, he is a manifestation of YHWH, but not the only one. He is the best anyone has ever seen. But even the "New Testament" verse that tells us this says no one has ever seen YHWH. (Yochanan 1:18) Many nations considered their kings to have "god" status, but Israel had never done this with David or Shlomoh. We were expecting an anointed, empowered Messiah; this we knew from the Scriptures. But not a new Elohim! Or an Elohim in human form. Israel never knew such a thing, and admitting this does not deny the real Yahshua, but upholds his intention completely. "But," you may ask, "didn't he say, 'I and the Father are one'?" Yes, but also He reiterated that a man and his wife are one (Mat. 19:5), yet they may not even know what each other is thinking. Yahshua even contrasted His will with the Father's, for as a man, many things that attract us looked pleasing to him. He was subject to temptation (Luke 22:39ff), and if it had been left up to him, he would have taken a different path. (Yochanan 5:30) He had an unbroken connection with the Father, unlike any other, so he was able to keep this at bay and focus on his mission, which was, as a deputy shepherd, finding the lost sheep of the House of Israel and regathering them. (Mat. 10:6; Yochanan 4:34; 10:11-14) We are not throwing out the baby with the bathwater. That, too, is a grave error. He was in perfect agreement with the Father, and they functioned in unison. None of His direct followers or even the Hellenist Paul ever taught that a man should be worshipped as Elohim, even this man. That is a new concept, sneaked in through the back door, that forced people to deny parts of the Torah to uphold. Ironically, verse 5 is the summation of everything Yahshua ever taught and did! But Israel responded to Yahshua in a Gentilized way, though he never made such claims, when his words are understood in the context of Torah. Like the blind man whom he healed as one of these signs, the healing came to us in two stages. (Mark 8:22-26) He is a king and that requires its own type of worship and adoration--a use of the term that we have lost today with the loss of a true sense of authority and royalty. Isn't it enough that He is Messiah, the seed of David, and the firstborn of YHWH both from the womb and from the grave, and the one sent to regather the lost sheep of the House of Israel? All of this is in accordance with the prophets. Why must we give him the same status YHWH has? That is not only unnecessary; it is forbidden. Aharon called the golden calf "YHWH", because the people wanted to put a face on Him so they could have some kind of control over Him. Will we turn Yahshua into a golden calf? Equality with YHWH is the same thing Adam and Chavvah tried to steal, but Yahshua refused to (Philippians 2:6-7). How we have slandered a righteous man by accusing him of being in a position where he said he would never go. This is a grievous sin against heaven. No matter how many things this deified "Jesus" has done for you, no miracle or sign can change what the Torah says. Remember, it is a test! Even many who have taken on the observance of every other aspect of the Torah fail it. Be eternally on your guard!
8. "you shall neither give in to him nor listen to him, nor shall your eye have pity on him. You shall neither spare him nor protect him [from justice],
Listen to him: Aramaic, "show affection for him". Today, we can tell him to show it to you in the Torah or keep quiet. If he does not, we must expose him as a fraud. One can not merely forgive, Notice that one's parents are left out of the list in verse 6; if one's parents are truly Israelites and one condemns them to death, he risks exposing himself to a very dangerous position. He would refer the matter to his father's brother, in all likelihood. At the very least, one's own hand would not be the first against them in this case.
9. "but you shall by all means kill him; your own hand shall be the first against him for his execution, then the hand of all the [rest of] the people afterwards.
The one who hears it must be the one to cast the first stone. After seeing someone this brave, others will find it less difficult to follow. None of us should enjoy it, and we would hope a mere "word to the wise would be sufficient" as a deterrent so that we never will have to do this. In fact, At present we are responsible to purge away false teachings by demonstrating the truth. For example, we may appear to endorse untrue doctrinal systems by our mere presence at their functions.
10. "You must pelt him with stones so that he dies, since he has tried to drive you away from YHWH your Elohim, who brought you out from the land of Egypt and rescued you from the dungeon of slavery.
He has tried: We must clearly see the reality of what he did. Idolatry is a most serious matter to YHWH, not just a casual pastime. The type of stones here are neither pebbles nor boulders, but stones of suitable size for building a house. The common method of stoning was the stun someone first with a large rock to the head, often knocking or throwing him off a cliff so he would become unconscious or at least immobile, then making a pile of stones over him to serve as a reminder that this person was not worthy to be properly buried. It would look like a destroyed house--a picture left on the landscape so that it would have a strong impact. Today's capital punishment is not done in public, and thus fails to have this effect. Messengers were to be sent out to inform others of what had been done to one who tried to take us away from YHWH:
11. "Then all Israel will take notice and stand in awe, and never again do any such wickedness as this among you.
He does not want this type of action to ever be necessary again. Instilling the fear within us should be enough of a deterrent. In fact, it is said that the command for parents to stone their rebellious child if he does not respond to correction (21:20) never had to be carried out. Apparently the threat was strong enough--exactly what He intended.
12. "If you shall hear it said in one of your cities which YHWH has given you to dwell in,
This is not some pagan city, but one that should have known better.
13. "'Some men, sons of Beli-ya'al have gone out from among you and compelled the inhabitants of their city, saying, "Let's go and serve other elohim, with which you have not been acquainted"',
Beli-ya'al: Heb. for worthlessness, or literally, "without ascent" or "profit". A similar usage of the term is found in Judges 19, where this got to the tribal level because of the refusal of a city to surrender the guilty party.
14. "then you must carefully consult [witnesses] and make an investigation and a thorough enquiry, and if the matter is indeed determined to be established truth, that such an abomination has been done among you,
Even a rumor makes us responsible to investigate to see if it is true. This is indeed an inquisition, but it is done methodically, scientifically, rationally, not in hot blood. We would have to err on the side of compassion here, giving the benefit of reasonable doubt. YHWH tends to offer repentance until we have dug ourselves into a very deep hole and do not even want to come out of it. It is a grossly-underused privilege that can shake the universe. But if someone is so convinced he should worship other gods that he becomes a missionary for their cause, we cannot leave it open-ended, for this is a plague that must be quarantined quickly. There is not much time to mull it over; they must decide quickly whom they will serve. If we know Torah well, we can decide quickly without being hasty. We can then be quick yet still have a firm foundation. How could it be done among us if the person went out from among us (v. 13)? Because he did not necessarily go out physically. The term actually means to depart from our innermost--the very place where YHWH's sanctuary is to be. This person has ceased to be concerned about providing YHWH with a dwelling place, even if he remains nearby physically.
15. "Then you shall by all means [mortally] strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge [mouth] of the sword, dedicating it in its entirety, along with everything in it, even its animals, to destruction with the edge of the sword,
Yahshua was alluding to the same concept when He told us to cut off even our right hand if it causes us to stumble. (Mat. 5:30) If the Northern Kingdom had practiced it when its first king began to do exactly what is being spoken of here, we would not have been exiled. In its entirety: In Israel, a whole city is to function as a unit; if someone is not in agreement, he needs to dissociate from the majority and defect to a higher authority that is in compliance with Torah rather than partaking of its destruction. (Compare Rev. 18:4.) Many probably did, which is probably how the report got out. If we do not report the crime, we are just as guilty, being an accessory to the charges. Our presence is our approval. Wherever we allow our bodies to remain, we are saying that we are in agreement with what goes on there. If we are in the wrong place, even if innocent, we will die too, as Lot would have if he had not left S'dom.
16. "then gather all its plunder into the middle of its open square, and burn the city with fire, including all its loot--every bit of it--for the sake of YHWH your Elohim, and it shall remain a ruin-heap perpetually; it must never be rebuilt.
This applies to any city, even your own, because judgment begins at home. There is no room for peace until such a cancer is dealt with. Ruin-heap: Heb., tel. LXX, "uninhabited". Since no Israelite did this when Yerushalayim deserved it, YHWH saw to its destruction, but He also granted that it would be rebuilt on its former site. (Yirm. 31:38)
17. "Nothing of what is dedicated to destruction shall stick to your hand, so that YHWH may turn away from the heat of His nostrils, and show you mercy, and have compassion on you, and make you great, as He promised [with an oath] to your forefathers,
If we let any of its influence remain, we are guilty by association. Many Israelites have divested ourselves of most vestiges of Catholicism, but retain one accursed thing--the "God-man" concept. It is time to rid ourselves of it as well. Enough truth about Yahshua is available that we do have a true alternative to either the Church, which deifies Him, or rabbinic Judaism, which uses this deification as an excuse to write Him off completely. Neither is acceptable.
18. "because you are listening to the voice of YHWH your Elohim, in order to treasure up all His commandments which I am laying on you today, so that you will do what is right in the eyes of YHWH your Elohim.
For too long we have been doing what is right in our own eyes, Constantine's and the popes' eyes, the pastor's, theologians, or denominations' eyes. It is time to return to the simplicity of what He originally told us to do.
CHAPTER 14
1. "You are children to YHWH your Elohim; you shall not make cuttings in your [bodies], nor bring about any baldness between your eyes for the sake of the dead,
Children: The "you" here is plural, for He is a Father to each one who seeks Him, but the reference changes to a singular one in the next verse, because He is our Father in the strongest sense when all of Israel is gathered as one. When He deals with one of us, it is as if He was relating to just a finger rather than His whole "son". But it is interesting that parents always tell their children not to cut their own hair or do strange things to their bodies, and now YHWH is doing the same to His children. These acts are signs that someone is still teaching the pagan rituals forbidden in the last chapter--signs that they are following the wrong elohim, even if it is done in YHWH's Name. We cannot set apart to Him what He has already said He will not accept. Baldness between your eyes: Does anyone still do this? It sounds like a command only for people with a "unibrow"! But the Hebraic perspective is a longitudinal line extending to any part of the head that is parallel to between the eyes, whether it be the upper lip, chin, or the crown of the head. Some of the ancients, in order to show their distraughtness when mourning, shaved the front of the head (not necessarily as low as the eyes, but in the center, and monks' famous bowl cuts and bald spots (the "Friar Tuck look", which is traced back to a Kanaanite practice, who cut a circle on their heads to honor their sun-deity), or any sort of unnatural bald spot, are also a form of this. Maurice Farbridge (Studies in Biblical and Semitic Symbolism) says that "upon the death of a husband, father, or other near relation, Arab women [still] cut their hair and scratch their faces with their nails." They then spread some of the hair on the loved one's tomb. Cuttings: something that penetrates the flesh, of which we see an example in the prophets of Baal in Eliyahu's day (1 Kings 18). YHWH does not need us to go to such lengths to get His attention. Do not lose your life (through the loss of blood) because another has lost his. Such cuttings include tattoos, but notice that it only forbids this for the sake of the dead, so we must not carry the command further than YHWH did. But some people do even that, for the memory of a deceased loved one, even today. So maybe this is not so far from home after all. This perpetually chains one to the dead soul, letting the other personality permanently affect oneself even after they have departed. This is forbidden no matter how close the person was to oneself, for it rather than the fact of one's belonging to YHWH becomes his identity. (Hirsch) Even the loss of a parent cannot override the remembrance of who our ultimate Father is. We should practice mourning, but in an orderly way that both gives room to our grief, comforts the bereaved, and honors the honorable, but also remembers that we have the hope of resurrection. Jewish rituals are a sound, Torah-honoring approach: a special period of serious mourning for seven days, then recognition of the loss in the synagogue for a full month, and remembering the deceased loved one on the anniversary of his death. Everything in its season. There is room allowed to get over the loss, but without the worship of ancestors found in nearly every pagan religion. It is not only a literal empty space that we are not to have between our eyes: what is to be between our eyes instead is YHWH's Word (11:18), and this is always linked with coming out of Egypt, a land that was preoccupied by death. Christianity carried on the same obsessions with pre-paring for the afterlife and focusing on the death of its leader when his life accomplished so much more. YHWH tells us instead to choose the covenant of life. There is not a "next time", so focus on making the most of your life rather than its inevitable end. Yes, there is a Kingdom coming, but there is a difference from the myth that even the New Testament, when read properly, does no support: the Kingdom is on earth, not in heaven, and it would be better to live right on into it, helping to establish it, than to merely get there by way of resurrection, if YHWH so allows. Some gave up faith in YHWH because of the immense losses in the Holocaust, but this is definitely leaving an empty space within ourselves. Rabbi Asher Meir reminds us that the place between our eyes represents both the center of our thoughts and our perception, so this is meant to set our higher faculties apart unto YHWH instead of unto death or the dead. Yahshua reminded us that we cannot account for one hair of our heads (Mat. 5:35-36), so shaving them is a claim that we are in control after all, and that is rebellion. He does not want His people disfigured, as noted elsewhere in the Torah, to such an extent that those who are may not officiate in His sanctuary. Israel is to be held up as a standard, and even when some of the hair that YHWH has not removed is fully removed by man, we are not the ideal picture of YHWH's image that He wants to present. On the few occasions He does specify that hair is removed, it is all removed at the same time, so that it will grow back evenly and not look unbalanced, disproportionate, or comically unnatural. Rome's way, on the other hand, is to keep some of it off all of the time, even though this requires constant attention.
2. "because you are a people set apart unto YHWH your Elohim. Moreover, YHWH has selected you to be a people for Himself, especially treasured above all nations that are on the earth.
He does not want His children to do anything in a common way or live an "unexamined life". We do not want to settle for just being a treasure to Him, but being a special treasure! Now Moshe is speaking of YHWH more as a Husband than as a Father. Being a special treasure indeed means that others will be excluded, no matter how they are grouped--an unpopular fact today. Who? Anyone who does these pagan things. Israel has been set apart; that is already indisputably accomplished. Our job is to separate ourselves unto Israel so we can actually be a part of that calling. As Moshe said at Mt. Sinai, "Whoever is for YHWH, come over to me" (to the Torah that he represents). It does not matter who your parents were; "whoever will may come". But come you must. It will not come about by magic; we have to immerse ourselves in His Word to so it becomes engrained in us. Treasure Him through His words and He will treasure you. Embracing these awesome relationships with YHWH also brings with it much responsibility. You cannot set yourself apart to YHWH without giving yourself away to the rest of Israel. The promise is to a people, not to individuals as such.
3. "You shall not eat any abominable thing;
There is no change of subject. Those who are His treasure are to eat the right things, because meals are so important in His culture. Eating abominable (disgusting) things is part of the paganism we are to separate ourselves from. We must not just pick up and eat any old thing that catches our eye, but be circumspect and not put death into ourselves. One of His first commands to Adam and Chawwah was also in regard to what to eat and what not to eat, and He carries the same kind of test into Israel. What is abominable goes beyond simply what smells or looks bad; He defines very clearly what we should find disgusting because He does. He tells us what to detest. (7:26-27) Other things YHWH puts in this category of "abominable" are homosexuality (Lev. 18:22; 20:13), idolatry (Deut. 7:25), burning our children in fertility rituals (Deut. 12:31), and turning others away from YHWH to worship other elohim (13:13-14). Eating pork chops is compared to this caliber of sins, which are all punishable by death, because embracing them puts us in a covenant of death, not life. Eating shrimp is tantamount to idolatry. Eating a rabbit is just like sodomy in YHWH's eyes. Clearly it is a serious offense to Him, not just something to avoid when convenient.
4. "these are the beasts that you may eat: the ox, the sheep, and the goat,
These three are worthy of the altar, yet even those who herded them were considered abominable by the Egyptians. (Gen. 43:32; 46:33-34; Ex. 8:25-26) They worshipped most animals, and may thus have been vegetarians for the same reason Hindus are. Yosef took advantage of this abhorrence on their part to keep his family separate from the Egyptians among whom they found refuge, but the point is that those in covenant with death find flocks of clean animals--and blood sacrifice--disgusting! This may have been an overreaction to the Hyksos, a Semitic dynasty that once conquered and dominated Egypt. There are no scenes of domestic herds in Egyptian hieroglyphics, only of hunts, and that shows alignment with Nimrod and Esau.
5. "the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the antelope, the bison, and the mountain sheep,
These can be eaten without having to bring any part to the sanctuary. (12:22-23) Antelope: Aram.," ibex"; bison: Aram., "wild ox", considered in Hebrew to be a form of cattle.
6. "And any beast whose hoof is divided and the split is cloven into two parts and that brings up the cud; among the beasts, that is what you may eat.
Hoof...two parts: Some animals have either the inner or outer part of the hoof cloven, but not both parts; only the animals in which both parts are split are kosher. LXX, "makes claws of two divisions". This makes them amazingly sure-footed even when their body weight seems far out of proportion to their somewhat spindly legs. In drawing our attention to the feet of the animals we eat, YHWH reminds us to examine our own walk. Are we "rightly dividing" His word? Also, since His appointed pilgrimage festivals are called "feet" in literal Hebrew (Ex. 23:14), this is also a reminder to keep His appointments. Ruminating is used as a metaphor for meditating on YHWH's word (Y'hoshua 1:8) not just once but over and over. As a ruminant animal has four stomachs, there are also by tradition four main levels on which to interpret Scripture: the literal, making links with other Scriptures that use the same terminology and seeing connections that the immediate passage alone would not make obvious, extensions to other related applications through analogy, and counsel hidden in a prophetic manner until the time it is to be used. This is how we learn to "rightly divide the Word." (2 Tim. 3:16) Each of us only has one stomach, but as a community we have multiple "stomachs", and as we speak to one another about it (30:11ff), we can process it much more fully and obtain more "nutrients" from it than we ever could alone. He is concerned about what is in our mouths, because He has put His words in our mouth; it is our responsibility not to let them depart from our mouths or the mouths of our descendants (Yeshayahu 59:21), and what we take into our literal mouths will help us remember this. Then we will have an answer for anyone who defies us (Psalm 119:41-42) and we can have the right words to say as we have treasured His words up in our hearts. (Mat. 12:35) The purpose of having them in our mouths is to teach them to our children. The picture holds true even to this point, for all of these animals provide their young with milk or something similar.
7. "However, of those that chew the cud or have cloven hoofs, you may not eat these: the camel, the hare, and the rock hyrax (since they chew the cud but do not have cloven hoofs; they shall be impure for you),
YHWH chooses animals for our consumption that exhibit characteristics that He wants us to possess. The picture in chewing the cud is of a person who studies the Word of YHWH, but does not walk it out as he should. The camel chews the cud, but he will spit it at you! Cloven-hoofed animals are the most sure-footed and therefore confident.
8. "and the pig. (Because it has a cloven hoof but does not chew the cud, it is impure for you.) You shall not eat of their flesh, nor [even] touch their dead body.
They say we are what we eat, and science also tells us that all the cells in our body are renewed after seven years, so when we stop eating pork, seven years later there is no pig left in us. Though not mentioned here, when we stop eating blood, by seven years later, there is no animal soul left in us. The pig is a picture of someone who walks the walk, but does not know why. It appears to be kosher on the outside, but its body does not sweat to rid itself of impurities. It has no cud in its mouth, but it has anything and everything else; it will even eat other pigs (its brothers) or even humans. So it is a picture of someone who accepts any doctrine without testing it, and makes it a part of himself without having any way to divest himself of it later, and cannot cease to be selfish. The Hebrew term for "flesh" (basar) more properly means "fresh", having the extended meanings of both fresh meat and news. A derivative is the Hebrew term for the Gospel (besorah). Therefore a deeper meaning is that we should not get close to the "gospel" of those who are looking out for self. YHWH's book is not about "me" but about "us". The pig can quote (has in his mouth) what his pastor or parents or Paul or the rabbis say, but not what is in the Torah. Interestingly, Paul tells us specifically not to devour one another over what we eat (Gal. 5:15; Rom. 14:20), so while it is very important to eat the right things, the real point is to learn what the eating--- or not eating--teaches us. As with literal pork, wherever you have the figurative pig, you have "heart disease". This abomination has no death sentence with it, because it kills the eater without a need for the executioner. Pig hearts are used for human heart transplants, showing us how close the deceitful, desperately wicked heart (Yirmeyahu 17:9) is to the pig's heart. Do not "follow your heart", as Disney would advise, but incline your heart toward YHWH's Word and salvage its only worth. Yochanan the Immerser wore a camelskin garment, so once the dead animal is separated into parts, we cannot call it a carcass, and things done with parts of their bodies (such as a pigskin football) may be touched. In our opinion, parts of their bodies may even be ingested when broken down to the cellular level (such as the rennet used to make cheese or gelatin used in the outer coating of a pill, especially if it is used as a medicine rather than a dietary supplement. We could even use a pig's heart as an implant if for the purpose of preserving life, for it is the kind most closely resembling a human's--which tells us that we are unclean as well (for no one is permitted to eat a man anyway). Remember that the Torah is not written for the microscopic level but for the "kindergarten" level on which we normally see things. Taking a pill is not eating a pig! YHWH wants us to have balance in all things, not swing from one extreme to the other.
9. "These [are the ones] you may eat, of everything that is in the waters: you may eat any that have fins and scales,
10. "but whatever does not have fins and scales, you shall not eat; it is impure for you.
Thus any sort of shellfish, dolphin, whale, etc. is not kosher. At one time it was thought that tuna did not have scales, but it was later found to have them while it is still in the water.
11. "You may eat of any ritually-clean birds.
We know from the Torah that pigeons, doves, and quail are clean, but other clean birds are not specified. Chickens are assumed to be clean, and by extension turkeys and ducks, and Yahshua speaks of giving a child a scorpion when he asks for an egg (Luke 11:12), and Iyov asks if there is any taste in the white of an egg (6:6). So we assume that at least some birds' eggs are kosher. They seem to have been commonly eaten. But we are never told which are clean. But Noakh knew already which they were, so he could bring them in greater numbers onto the ark.
12. "But of these you shall not eat: the eagle, the osprey, and the buzzard,
13. "the kite, the falcon, and the vulture, and such species;
14. "nor any raven or such species,
15. "nor the owl, the ostrich, the seagull, the hawk,
16. "the little owl, the eared owl, nor the ibis,
Egyptians worshipped the ibis.
17. "the pelican, a carrion vulture, or the cormorant,
18. "the stork, the heron, or such species, nor the hoopoe, nor the bat.
In some cases the precise species are not known, but the general types of creatures are; in general, any bird or beast that eats another animal may not be eaten, because it thus loses its purity. The bat is not a bird, but is in this category of flying things, and it strikes one easily as unclean since it seems like a rodent.
19. "Any insect that flies will be impure for you; they shall not be eaten,
Insect: literally, creeping thing, which is the apparent focus, since locusts do seem to fly, but are clean nonetheless. (Lev. 11:22) They are not normally a creeping thing, just as crickets are not.
20. "but of any ritually pure fowl you may eat.
Ritually pure: not specified, except by not being mentioned in the above listing. This includes chickens, turkeys, ducks, quails, pigeons, etc. Chickens often appear to be doing a disgusting thing--eating their own feces. But actually they are only picking through for seeds that were not digested the first time--much like chewing the cud. This is actually a wonderful picture, for many of us are now finding nourishment from things we rejected the first time around because the world and the Church found them useless: the Sabbath, the festivals--and the Torah as a whole.
21. "You must not eat anything that [withers away and] dies of natural causes, but you may give it to a sojourner who is in your city to eat, or you may sell it to a foreigner, because you are a people set apart unto YHWH your Elohim; you must not boil a kid in its mother's milk.
If the blood is dealt with properly, we may receive nutrition from a dead animal without partaking of its soul, but this process cannot take place if the animal dies on its own. That is a picture of drawing benefit from lawlessness. Sojourner: Aramaic, an "uncircumcised transient". The word means "one who turns", which could include one who is turning aside like Moshe to pay attention to YHWH, or possibly one who was part of the community but is turning away. The term is related to the one for chewing the cud above, possibly because of the sense of mulling over whether he wants to become part of this community that has caught his attention. It was generally used of those who were learning about YHWH from Israel, having to come live with Israel for this purpose, but who had not yet fully committed to being part of it or had not yet been circumcised. It may seem mean to give him meat that was not slaughtered for the purpose of eating, for this is in a sense mixing life and death. But it is somewhat of a reminder to him that he is still partaking of death to some extent, and may be intended to spur him to make up his mind more quickly. The foreigner, who is not even contemplating becoming part of YHWH's special treasure, but may be in the Land only to do business, has to buy what would be given to one who is here living under our rules. Boil a kid...milk: This has been taken to mean it is never permissible to eat milk and meat products at the same meal, but Avraham served exactly that to guests sent by YHWH (Gen. 18:8), and it is a poor typology, because the Torah is described as milk (1 Peter 2:2) and Yahshua as meat (Yochanan 6:54). Unless you have raised the animals, the likelihood of purchasing cheese made from the milk of the mother of the same animals whose meat you are purchasing is virtually nil. Boiling specifically a kid-goat in its own mother's milk (which is all that is actually forbidden) is said to have been a custom common among pagans in the region. But in the tense used here, "boil" can also mean to "cause to ripen" or "raise to maturity". In the context that follows, regarding the firstfruits (as well as in Ex. 23:19; 34:26), it fits to translate this "do not raise a kid to maturity on its mother's milk", i.e., bring it the firstborn as the offering as soon as its can be coaxed away from its mother. Exodus 22:29 specifies just when that is--on the eighth day of its life. So this last phrase would fit better as part of verse 22.
22. "You shall by all means set aside a tenth of your produce--of the seed that the cultivated field brings forth year by year.
Like the kid in verse 21, it must be offered in due season.
23. "Then you shall eat the tithe of your grain, your wine, and your oil, as well as the firstborn of your flocks and herds in YHWH's presence in the place where He shall choose to establish His Name, so that you may learn the awe of YHWH your Elohim all the days.
Why would this teach us to fear YHWH? We would think it would teach us to love Him or thank Him. But there is truly no difference, for it is positive reinforcement such as He prefers to use: When we experience His bounty, we will fear never being able to do this again. The learning takes place in the eating at the place where there is teaching about Him--the Temple, which shows us what the Body of Messiah is supposed to look like. How do we eat of the tithe if we have offered it already--since the tithe belongs to the priesthood? This is actually a second tithe, to be brought and enjoyed together at Sukkoth, the feast of ingathering. I.e., 10% of one's crop is to be eaten within one week! Now that is a feast! By giving this command, YHWH makes it possible for everyone, rich and poor, to have enough to truly feast in His presence. If they have any income at all, they will not be totally without resources with which to celebrate, if they obey this order.
24. "But if the journey is too long for you, so that you are unable to carry it since the place which YHWH your Elohim shall choose (to establish there His name) is too far away for you, when YHWH your Elohim has blessed you,
Too far away: This does not negate the command to go and appear before YHWH. It simply allows a person to bring a might more portable token of the products which might be too heavy to carry or transport because of their sheer numbers. It is then exchanged again for food upon arrival.
25. "then you shall exchange it for money, and secure the money in your hand and go to the place which YHWH your Elohim shall select,
The tithe is, by definition, agricultural (v. 23), but since there is this precedent of exchanging it for money, while we are in exile, we may certainly practice monetary tithing as a remembrance of the true tithe, so that we are in practice when we are able to do the real thing again. In this aspect we can find ourselves in this Book of Life even now.
26. "and you shall use that money for whatever your soul desires--for oxen, sheep, wine, or intoxicating drink, or whatever your soul desires--and eat it there in the presence of YHWH your Elohim and rejoice--both you and your household.
Would one ever hear such a thing in a church? Despite the known dangers of alcoholism, as outlined in both Proverbs and the Torah rules for priests on duty, YHWH does not go to the opposite extreme of complete prohibition, but gives us a time and a place to cast off some restraints in the right setting where it helps to communicate and spread joy. Of course, what our soul desires must be regulated by Torah, so this is not sloppy dissipation which makes one a burden to everyone around him. We should not yearn for what makes oneself obnoxious. But notice that this tithe is not actually given but consumed. Yet when we do it for the sake of having a "party" for YHWH, it is considered giving. If we take it back home and spend it on something else, you are stealing. What is left over would be turned over to the priests. But like the Sabbath, on which we "have to" stop working, who but YHWH gives commands like this? The Torah is freedom, not chains!
27. "But you shall not forget the Levite who is within your gates, since he has no territorial share or inherited property as you do.
Forget: or neglect. This refers to when in Yerushalayim, but each family and tribe is responsible to see that the Levites who lived in their region were well-cared-for when they came. (They would not live in the same cities, for they had their own, but were within the same area of legal jurisdiction, for Mal'akhi tells us that the court itself is to be operated by the Levites, and their cities are the ones where the storehouses are. Those storehouses might feed the one who stocks them if his own crop fails next year--like our ancestor Yosef, who built whole cities for storing grain in Egypt before the famine.) A communal meal strengthens us. It is a picture of partaking of one another. He cares about the symbolism: we need to be clean so we can nourish and not defile one another. Are we remaining "kosher" for one another's sake through selflessness? He cares as much about what comes out of our mouths as what goes into them. Don't forget he is not able to focus on making a living, so how can he even have something with which to keep this festival, since the Levite's tithes go to the priests? Verse 22 suggests that we are to give the Levites something not just to eat but to plant around their cities, since there is limited space there for growing crops. In this way we "teach them how to fish rather than giving them a fish", so to speak. Though they are not meant to exist independently of the whole community, we at least keep them from the shameful condition of being total beggars, so that although they are em-ployed by YHWH full-time, they are not in the position of itinerant evangelists who purport to be in "full-time service" like the Levites but constantly stoop to cajoling people into giving them money to keep their "ministries" afloat.
28. "At the end of three years you shall bring out all the tithe of your produce in that year, and deposit it [allow it to lie] within your gates,
This is a third tithe, and is only required one out of three years. Thus not 10% but actually 23-1/3% of one's increase is given as tithe. If everyone does what he should and is generous, this will be enough to meet the needs of the disadvantaged, and YHWH will in turn prosper the givers to ensure that no one will suffer lack.
29. "and the Levite (since he has no territorial share or inherited property as you do) and the sojourner, the orphan, and the widow who are within your gates shall come and eat their fill, so that YHWH may bless you in all the work that you carry out with your hand.
Levite: Your local teacher in the ways of Torah. Eat their fill: Do not give him only half as much as you would eat. Offer him hospitality as well as a meal; give him a roof under which to eat it and a chair to sit on while he eats, and engage in conversation with him while doing so. Bring him to fullness in every way. Eating together is a spiritual pursuit in Israel, not just a means of nutrition. It binds us together in unity. We are to bring life to one another by what comes outr of our mouths as well as what goes into them--a big part of being a special treasure to YHWH, the theme of this chapter throughout. Sojourner: one who has come to dwell temporarily among the people of Israel specifically to learn about YHWH, and does not have a trade, since it might take work away from the native-born. He is a guest and is to be sustained. This way, when they return home, they will spread a favorable report about this awesome Land and its Elohim. YHWH even makes sure those who are only passing through may experience the bounty of His Land and the generosity of His people. It does not devouir its inhabitants, as the spies said; it is generous even to those who are just passing through! Orphan: specifically the fatherless, who, like the widow, may have some physical strength but no chief breadwinner in the family and thus poorer than other people. By the time of Yahshua, the priesthood was largely corrupt, and there is no indication that Levitical cities still existed or that Levites continued to dwell in the regions outside Yehudah for the purpose of teaching the Torah to those who could only come to the Temple three times per year. But Yahshua's brother Yaaqov, who was in the chief position in the congregation at Yerushalayim, summarized "true, undefiled religion" as "aiding the widow and orphan in their need, and keeping oneself unspotted by the world system]".
CHAPTER 15
1. "From the end of every seven years you shall put into effect a release [from debt].
Though an unusual command unknown anywhere else in the world, this seems pretty straightforward. In addition to letting our fields lie fallow for the seventh year, we also must release our fellow Israelites from their debts to us, so we really must trust YHWH for our provision. The number seven in Hebrew connotes completion, especially in regard to fulfilling an oath. “Release” here means to fling down, remit, or leave alone. This does not connote letting go begrudgingly, but willingly and with enthusiasm. Since the term “debt” is only implied and not overt here, a more widely-applicable message of this verse is, “Upon completion, let it go.” We do not need to take with us baggage from camps from which YHWH’s presence has moved on. It will only delay our reaching the goal. There are specific routines and activities that are only profitable as long as we are camped at one stopping-place, but which are of no use at the next campsite, where the environment and terrain are different. We knew when YHWH’s presence was about to move on because the Ark of the Covenant went on ahead. (Num. 10:33ff) When it did, all that was left behind where the altar had stood was a mound of earth or stones. It was a sign of where we had been, but no longer are, and, more importantly, where He no longer was. They moved on to new landscapes where they had to be new logistics. Likewise, His presence has rested on many “movements” throughout history, such as the Reformation, the Charismatic revival, or the Messianic movement, but each time the season has changed and YHWH, finished with what He was going to do there, has moved on to something else, many people stayed behind and formed denominations, being more comfortable with the piles of stones, rather than moving on with Him as living stones. His covenant is what these directions (11:26) bring us back to. The Torah—is what was in the Ark, and any true move of YHWH is meant to move us back to it. We must not stop and set up camp until it does. It is the test of what doctrines are permanent and which were only stopgaps to get us through certain aspects of our exile or transitional understandings to get us out of our indifference to His ways and turn us back in the other direction, but which have no place once we reach His Land or even when we are more mature. The covenant does not change, but it keeps moving on until we reach the Promised Land, though we cannot skip to the end, but must follow step by step and stay together. When the light turns green again, keep moving. To stay back with what is more familiar and therefore more comfortable, is to forfeit His continued presence. What are we holding onto from the last camp that no longer has any usefulness? We have new priorities now that we know we are Israel—different from much of the morality we had while in the holding-tank of the Church, for it would only be a burden that hinders us from obeying much of the Torah now. Tammuz crosses, Easter eggs, the Trinity, pet doctrines from our childhood, doubt, bitterness, self-pity, and the priorities the commerce system sets for us were “over” a long time ago, and will not serve us well in this walk. Why do we keep carrying what YHWH is finished with? The walk is much lighter without the loyalties we developed while we were slaves in Egypt. That time is over; let it go. Amaleq attacks the stragglers who hang back, hesitant to move on, or who cannot move quickly because of too much baggage from the last camp. We need to let those who choose not to continue forward stay there, as much as it may break our heart. Do not jettison cargo to the point of becoming irresponsible, but do not keep carrying what you are not going to need any longer. Like food that has been outdated for seven years, it will only make you ill. There is a time to keep and a time to throw away. (Qoh./Eccles. 3:6) Whatever we embrace attaches itself to us and grows a life of its own; but if we choose to let it go, it will have to release its grip on us as well. Often we hold ourselves in debt to things within our own minds that really have been over for a long time, and which are probably not even holding onto us anymore; we just think they are.
2. "Now this is the manner of the release [from debt]: every creditor must let drop anything he has lent to his fellow; he must not put pressure on his fellow or his brother, because a release for YHWH has been proclaimed.
Creditor: literally "owner of a loan", "debt-master" or even "debt-husband". We totally miss this nuance in English. When we owe someone, a negative relationship forms between us in that area until the obligation is satisfied. We are servants of the lender, "married" to him in a convoluted way. So at reasonable intervals, the One who truly owns us tells us to let them go. The release is not just for one's brother's sake; it is "for YHWH" or "unto YHWH", so that your neighbor can be free to be YHWH's direct servant again, enslaved to no other. We see in the book of Judges how Israel's enemies kept them always oppressed by exacting tribute from them. This was the way of the Kanaanites, whose name also means "merchants". When paying off a debt consumes all of our resources, the only way to continue to live in the meantime is to incur even more debt, it seems that there is no way out. YHWH does not want any of His people becoming so hopelessly in debt, so He sets this very definite limit on how far it can go among His people. If we seek after things we do not really need, He may turn us over to them for a time. But He does not even let His most intense indignation last more than 2,300 days (Daniel 8:14)--which is less than seven years. At the same time the Land gets its rest, there is a release of burdens of this type as well, built into the cycle of years just as it is built into the cycle of seven days. This is not set up so that we will take advantage of one another, but it is a time when we are to no longer demand back what a brother owes us. We cannot expect finance companies to treat us this way, but we must at this point cancel all debts our fellow Israelites owe us. ("Fellow" literally means "one of the same flock, who feeds in the same pasture and has the same shepherd".)
3. "You may require it from an outsider, but your hand must release whatever of yours is with your brother,
Not everyone receives the same mercy that YHWH's flock receives, because more is expected of them. Non-Israelites do not need to be released from any obligation on the seventh year. There are different rules for how to treat those outside the flock to which we are committed, especially when it comes to finances. If someone is not under common covenant, he cannot truly sin against you, for he has no Torah. They can commit a crime against you by definition of the laws of your locality, and in that case they need to pay. But we should try to keep from getting so involved with outsiders that they can use us or make us indebted to them. The same level of liberality need not be applied to just anyone anywhere, though what goes around comes around, and feeding a starving child anywhere is not against Torah. That YHWH allows a double standard here does not imply malice or that He discourages compassion toward those who are outside Israel, but simply means our primary focus must be on meeting Israel's needs.
4. "although there should not be any needy among you--because YHWH will indeed bless you in the Land that YHWH your Elohim is entrusting to you as an inheritance to take as a possession
I.e., set an example of walking in the Torah until there is no longer a need for borrowing, because if we take care of one another we will all be prosperous. Of course, “poor” should not be defined as not having a new car, but as having nothing to eat or no shelter! The fact that this debt is released does not mean the debtor should not keep trying to compensate his creditor in other ways, especially if he could not pay it all off on time, for this is honorable. This takes the burden off one from the outside, but we should keep the expectation on ourselves so that there will not be a blot on our “credit report”. We are always indebted to each other in one way or another, for we remain brothers. If you have someone you can depend on, you are much wealthier than those who have great riches but are always having to watch their backs lest those closest to them take it all.
5. "if you will indeed obey the voice of YHWH your Elohim, in order to be careful to obey these commandments which I am drilling into you today--
Only if we diligently obey will the Land respond to us to this extent. This is YHWH’s “prosperity doctrine”. Here is even more motivation to obey the Torah, albeit not the highest. Moshe knew Israel’s propensities, and in v. 11 he essentially says Israel will not get it 100% right, because there would always remain some poor among us. Everyone was given land, but many made bad decisions and lost it. There will be some who follow their own hearts, or who obey for the wrong reasons, thinking this is a formula for personal wealth, so the Land will not respond to them, because we will all prosper only as we are about taking care of one another in the way the Torah defines. If it is done for the purpose of personal gain, the blessing evaporates. So everything has its limits. This releases the lender from entanglement with someone who is proving to have only used him, so that he can cut off dealings with him, because he knows his propensities.
6. "because YHWH your Elohim is going to bless you just as He promised you, and you will lend to many nations, but you yourself will not borrow, and you will exercise dominion in many nations, but they will not exercise dominion in you.
Lend but not borrow: This is a welcome promise, for we have too often been the borrowers. Indeed, in exile, we are often poor specifically because we keep the Torah, seeking the Kingdom first, and thus are out of the loop of who holds the money now, but when we get back to the Land there will be even more of a change for which to be thankful. But even now, true prosperity comes when we all take care of one another. Israel is not meant to be counted among the nations; when obeying YHWH, no one else is to rule over her, influence her, or obligate her to their customs. If we practice this on the micro-level, treating our brothers rightly, then from this tiny piece of land, YHWH will spread our influence so far that the nations, who mismanage their wealth, will start coming to Israel for loans, because they see that His way works. In the process we will teach them what it is based on—this Torah practice of releasing one another from debt. Of course, that part will not apply to them, and they may even wish to become part of Israel so that they, too, will have this advantage. We would hope that they would then catch on to the underlying principles in Torah of loving our neighbors as ourselves. When we have the upper hand, we need to remember how it felt to be on this side of the equation. This does not mean letting anyone be lazy; it is not just feeding one another when hungry, but holding each one accountable to do the right thing. if all are diligent and productive everyone will prosper. YHWH shows 6-to-1 bias toward compassion, but there may also be times to remember who the greedy bankers who put us in such dire straits were, when it comes our turn to be the lenders; they should expect no favors from us then.
7. "When there is a needy person among you, one of your relatives from within any of your gates in the Land that YHWH your Elohim is giving you, you must not let your heart become obstinate or close your hand against your needy brother,
He assumes the normal situation, if attained, will always fall apart. Close your hand: Aramaic, "tighten your fist".
8. "because you are to open wide your hand to him, and by all means lend him enough of anything he needs that is lacking to him.
Lending without interest is also required toward others within Israel. If you have enough, lend him all he needs; do not even withhold your rainy day fund, if he does not have enough to celebrate YHWH’s feast. Of course, make sure it is truly a need; no one needs an X-box or a jet ski! An outright gift might get someone out of your hair, but that is not what we want in regard to our brothers. The Hebrew term for “lend” connotes becoming involved, even entangled, with someone. A loan means something is expected in return, for YHWH wants us all involved in making sure we all perform at a higher level, making sure they make better decisions next time. This does not mean you can harass him to pay you back. (See chapter 24) But the one who borrows rather than receiving an “entitlement” knows that someone is depending on him to do better. Whenever one has someone depending on him, whether it be a creditor, a wife, or children, he is less likely to take foolish risks. The lender has a right to make sure the borrower does not use the loan to buy a lottery ticket or feed to the ducks the beans he gave him to feed his family! He can hold his feet to the fire to be responsible in planting some as well as eating them, so he will not need to borrow again. This is a very stabilizing force, and one who is depended upon is more motivated to be dependable. We have a right to expect those of this flock to do the right thing; if they do not, become the “master of their debt” so that they will turn around. When it comes to the forgiveness of sin, there are different rules. In Luke 17, Yahshua lays them out: If your brother sins against you, first rebuke him (not insult him or chew him out but show him what Scripture says about what he has done; in some cases he may not know. Don't expect thanks, for few people are immediately thankful for a rebuke. If he responds properly (repents with actions, not just words), then you forgive him--even seven times a day (possibly an allusion to verse 1 here). What about “forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors?” That is, in fact, the key. YHWH will forgive us in the same way we are told in Torah to forgive: a debt is forgiven when the matter is complete. Until it is, do not let it go, for that would only be to cast him to the wolves. It proves you do not really care about him; if you give up on his ever being a profitable sheep, you have branded him as useless and untrustworthy. “Forgive and forget” sounds noble and compassionate, but just writing it off builds no accountability in him. Nothing gets fixed., and the problem will only show up again. Uphold the standard. Forgiveness is never a blank check; this only gives people an excuse to never change. There is no profit (no ascension) in that. Of course there are limits—70 times 7—at which point one who just does not stop taking advantage of us is turned over to the courts to be punished as a thief. One can never repent for killing someone, unless he can bring them back to life, so the Torah demands his death; forgiveness is not possible here. Just do not let anger or bitterness take root while you are still withholding forgiveness. Do whatever you can to see that they do repent so they can be restored. If they go above and beyond the minimum, extend your hand further to restore them, and be sure to show proper appreciation.
9. "Keep watch over yourself lest there be a pointless idea in your mind that says, 'The seventh year--the year of release--is getting close", and your eye becomes evil toward your needy brother, so that you give him nothing, and he cries out to YHWH against you; this will constitute guilt for you.
Pointless: Heb., Beli-ya’al--worthless, unprofitable, or destructive. Do not hesitate to lend when it appears you will receive nothing back. (Luke 6:34) Guard your mind, because we are not even allowed to think such a thought. Besides, in the seventh year, you will not plant your field, so you will not need as much help. Eye becomes evil: an idiom for being stingy or ungenerous. Yahshua says such a dim view of our neighbors makes our whole life dark (Mat. 6:21ff), for even our motives in giving to our brothers will be selfish. Giving so that we may be blessed in return is not light. Putting our resources into someone so that we can maintain influence over him is still serving two masters. Worry is what makes our “eyesight” worse. When we are taking care of one another, we will not have to worry about being cared for. If we use our extra resources to care for the one who is hungry today instead of hoarding them for what may be a need tomorrow, we will find that it is his turn to feed us tomorrow (if it ever comes), and everyone will be blessed. (2 Cor. 8:12-15) Cries out: like a sibling who says, “I’m telling Daddy!” YHWH wants all of His children to love each other just as does any father who loves all of his children. This will constitute guilt for you: see Psalm 140:12. The confessions, guilt, and sin offerings will cost you much more than you would have lent to your brother.
10. "Indeed, you shall give to him, and your heart must not be displeased when you give to him, because on account of this YHWH your Elohim will bless you for this purpose, in all your pursuits and in every undertaking of your hand.
He gets more radical still! First He told us how to think; now He tells us how we must feel. It takes discipline to obey the Torah! Our natural tendency is to be afraid we will not have enough left for our own needs if we meet someone else's needs, but YHWH is our true source of sustenance; helping the poor is like lending to Him, and He is the one who will repay us (Prov. 19:17; 28:27); we should not depend on frail mankind to meet our needs. When you give: While He does not obligate us to give to the needy, but only lend to them so that they will not lose their dignity either, the timing of this particular instance means that for all practical purposes the loan will turn out to be a gift, because the release will come soon after the loan is made. For this purpose: so that we can continue to be generous so that all Israel will be prosperous. (2 Cor. 9:6-8) He blesses us so that we will have something to give, not so we will be far ahead of our brothers. The same context tells us that if we sow sparingly we will reap sparingly. Compare the reason David asks YHWH to bless Israel in Psalm 67. And it applies to much more than food or clothing. If we are blessed with understanding, it is so we can help the rest of Israel understand. The best way to learn is to teach. If we do not make our talents or our courage available to those in Israel who need them, we must answer to “Daddy”. And it does not have to be lofty, scholarly things; if you sweep the floor well, you will be a great blessing to one who cannot. This is a family mentality; YHWH’s people are His storehouses. Whatever He has stored in them is not to be turned against one another for the sake of commerce; it is not about how skilled a pastor or rabbi we can hire. If we do not give out what YHWH gives us, we will not receive any more. In a stagnant pond, everything dies. Of course, we give it out as needed, not frivolously or wastefully. But as we give out, we must keep replenishing the storehouses so we continue to have available what Israel needs. This may mean increasing our skills or talents so that we will make ourselves more valuable to the Kingdom, to the community, and to one another. The knowledge of the ancient ways will be all the more useful as more modern methods of storage and distribution continue to fail. We must read the Torah carefully so that we will put the right things in the storehouse to meet real, not just perceived, needs.
11. "For there will never cease to be needy [people] in the midst of the Land; that is why I am commanding you, saying you must open wide your hand to your poor or needy brother within your Land.
This is Yahshua’s authority for saying, “The poor you always have with you.” (Mat. 26:11) Someone will always do it wrong, so always be ready to open your hand. Does this hold true even in the Kingdom? Yes, people will make mistakes then too, and there may be plagues and famines, though we would expect not as many—unless they fail to come up to Sukkoth! So practice the same principles now, so we are ready when we do get to the Land. Jewish sages say that failure to thus open one’s hand is the reason leprosy comes upon some houses in Israel. (Lev. 14:34ff) One’s house is not ritually unclean until the priest declares it so. Therefore, one is commanded to remove all the contents of the house before the priest comes to inspect it. This way, if one lied and told his neighbor that he did not have the item he wanted to borrow from him, the neighbor can see what was in his house and say, “What is this I see? You said you had none, but you actually had four!” Not loving one’s neighbor destroys a house. The House of Efrayim was lost because we did not take care of our neighbors, and the Temple—YHWH’s own house—was destroyed because brother had pointless hatred against brother. We were not living as interlocking stones, so the picture that symbolized this was taken from us. Poor or needy: What is the difference? One means “afflicted” (by a variety of types of pres-sure) and the other means “destitute” (lacking basic necessities). Many do not need you to lend money or physical things, but do have a great need for sound advice, a listening ear, or a shoulder to cry on. Be generous to both. (If someone lends you his ear, give it back quickly! Stay on the subject at hand!) Make sure you are bearing the right burdens. Have we ignored anything that should have been repaid to our brothers or to YHWH? What baggage is a brother or sister carrying because we have not brought some matter to completion? Deal with it—then let it go.
12. "If your relative--a Hebrew man or woman--is sold to you, he [or she] may serve you six years, then in the seventh year, you must set him free with no obligation to you.
Not the seventh year he is with you, but the seventh year in which all of Israel lets the land lie fallow. (Ex. 23:11)
13. "Moreover, when you send him out from [being] with you with no obligation, you must not send him away empty [handed];
Send him out in a better situation than he came to you, so he will not have to become someone else's slave. YHWH even had the Egyptians do this to our ancestors when they were released.
14. "you must liberally supply him from your flock, your threshing floor, and your wine vat. You shall give him [from] whatever YHWH your Elohim has blessed you with.
Liberally supply him: literally, "lay a collar on his neck"--not with a slave-chain any longer, but as a woman is given a necklace full of costly gems as a dowry to provide for her later in life should she be widowed. A similar payment was made to the servants of a foreign king who contributed workmen for the building of YHWH's Temple in King Shlomo's time. (2 Chron. 2:10) The abundance of the sixth year (Lev. 25:21) gives us enough to be able to carry out this order as well.
15. "Remember [this], because you were a slave in the Land of Egypt, and YHWH your Elohim rescued you; that is why I am giving you orders concerning this matter today.
YHWH worked it out so that the Egyptians did furnish many provisions for their released slaves. Don't let your countryman become a slave again. Do to your brother as YHWH did to all of us.
16. "(Now if he should tell you, 'I will not go out from [being] with you', because he loves you and your household, and it has gone well for him [while he was] with you,
Notice the similarities with Ruth, who was free to leave Naomi, but chose not to, because she loved the people of Israel. This person appears to be saying, "I am a lousy farmer and I know I am only going to fail again if left merely to my own resources; here at least I will not starve", much like the Prodigal Son. (Luke 15:17)
17. "then take the piercing-tool and put it through his ear and onto the door, and he shall be a slave to you perpetually. You may even do the same to a maidservant.)
This is symbolic of his becoming permanently attached to the house (an idiom in Hebrew for a household). "The" piercing-tool: It seems to be referring to a particular one. Was it one that would have been used in some way for his sendoff, such as to make him a pair of sandals for his journey? Or was it the same awl used to inscribe YHWH's words into the doorpost on an earlier occasion? (See 6:9; 11:20.)
18. "It must not seem burdensome in your sight when you set him free with no obligation to you, because he has served you for six years, earning [you] double the wages of a hired servant, and YHWH your Elohim will bless you in all that you do.
A hired servant: i.e., he has been worth twice as much to you as someone hired from a labor pool for a day's work, because he knows the territory much better and can bring to bear in his work his familiarity with the household. He deserves to have you outfit him with supplies when he goes, because you have gotten far more profit from him than from someone you would have been having to pay all along. Also, he is a brother to you already, not someone you do not know, so he means more to you than a stranger. He is not someone who is trying to take advantage of you, so he is an advantage to you. He should be working harder because you have been a deliverance to him. His physical labor for you has also given you an occasion to bless your brother (which is what much of Torah is about) by providing a way to pay off his debt. He has thus served you in two ways, which could not be true of an outsider indifferent to the community of Israel.
19. "Every firstling male born of your herd or your flock you must set apart [as devoted] to YHWH your Elohim; you must not do any work with the firstborn of your cattle, nor shear the firstborn of your sheep.
This does not mean the first born that year in the whole flock, but the firstborn of each ewe whenever it comes, if it is male. If the firstborn is female, it is not brought, and some years there might be no ewes that have firstborn, while other years there could be many within one flock. Not do any work: Don't let the meat become tough before you bring it as an offering for the priests. And the hide belongs to them too, as well as the wool. The theme here is the same as that of the rest of the chapter: Let go of what YHWH wants you to let go of. You are not to derive any personal benefit from it (v. 19), though YHWH does give it back to us by letting us participate in eating of it. You give as an I ndividual, bt receive it back as part of the whole:
20. "Year by year, you shall eat it in the presence of YHWH your Elohim in the place YHWH shall choose--you and your household.
By eating of it only in this context, we receive the added blessings of His presence and the presence of all our Israelite brothers, and YHWH's full-time servants, the priests and Levites, are provided for as well. It thus becomes not a selfish pleasure, but a step by which to ascend higher. Year by year: as opposed to the tithe brought to the storehouses only once every three years. This is brought every year at the feast of Sukkoth--in addition to the 70 bulls already slaughtered to feed the priests and worshippers!
21. "But if there is any blemish in it--lameness, blindness, or any bad defect--you may not slaughter it unto YHWH your Elohim;
Assumedly it would be redeemed with money, like one's firstborn son, or with a perfect animal, as the firstborn of a donkey (an unclean animals but one that is useful) can be redeemed with a lamb.
22. "you may eat it within your gates--ritually clean and unclean [people] alike--as [you would] a gazelle or deer.
These animals are kosher, but never used for Temple sacrifice, because they are wild rather than domesticated.
23. "Only its blood you shall not eat; you shall pour it out onto the ground like water.
Can you substitute another so you still have the privilege of devoting the minimum to YHWH? No. This may just be another of YHWH's ways of bringing relief to those He knows are already oppressed by what they owe but cannot really afford. He says they are off the hook in this case. One can give a free-will offering, which may be more to one's credit. So by letting the firstborn be blemished, He may be giving a blessing in disguise (if we choose to run with it).
CHAPTER 16
1. "Observe the month of the aviv, and prepare the Passover unto YHWH your Elohim, because in the month of the aviv YHWH your Elohim brought you out of Egypt by night.
Aviv: literally, tenderness, but it refers to a specific stage of growth inthe springtime when barley grains in particular are at a point of readiness to be harvested within the next 15 to 22 days (see photo), since the firstfruits must be brought the day after the Sabbath following Passover. (Lev. 23:11) Month: specifically the new moon; literally, the renewing. Observe: watch for it, but also build a hedge around it to guard and protect it. There is a particular new moon to protect, for if we miss it, we will end up doing the Passover on the wrong day. We will miss the appointment, and will “not be able to see the doctor”. This is such an important command that YHWH gives us three witnesses: the aviv, the new moon as sighted in Israel, and the blossoming of the almond trees, which harbinger the coming barley harvest. The Hebrew word for almond is for this reason from the word “to be watchful”, as used in a play on words in Yirmeyahu chapter 1, and this is why. The rabbis, noted for their frequent fence-building, have failed to do so in this case, substituting instead a contrived calendar. It was useful, honorable, and even necessary, when no one in the Land of Israel could get the word out to the diaspora about the aviv or sighting of the moon, but now that there are those in the Land who search for the aviv every year, there is no excuse for holding onto a stopgap that is no longer necessary. It is convenient to be able to plan ahead, but this does not meet the requirements of Torah, for it does not wait for the aviv to be observed. Sometimes it actually moves the Passover to the wrong time--the exact opposite of guarding it. It is almost always off the moon-based calendar by a day or two. Tradition preserved many wonderful things that would have otherwise perished completely, but all things must be restored. And indeed, the new Sanhedrin is reportedly considering moving back to the sighted moon. It is not the right of the rabbis to change what YHWH has already commanded. By night: This is why we eat the Passover at night. But this seems to contradict the fact that they walked out of Egypt in the morning after staying in the house all night as commanded. In Exodus 13:3ff, Moshe even told them “this day you are going out, in the month of the aviv.” But Pharaoh summoned Moshe and Aharon at night and released them to leave. (Ex. 12:31) But though they were “saved”, they were not safe as long as they stayed within Pharaoh's jurisdiction. Though packed, we did not yet leave, so though “freed”, we could not be delivered as long as we stayed in Egypt. So first we left the place of our captivity, then left the borders of Egypt. But Pharaoh still had a grip on us until--again, by night--we crossed the Reed Sea. If one pays for some furniture, it is redeemed, but until it is delivered it is not in the house, and not usable. We are not delivered until we put our feet to it. Though through his selfless act of giving up his rightful throne in order to restore his alienated brothers, Yahshua has redeemed us, we still live under others' rule. Until we are in YHWH's presence in the Land of Israel, we are not safe. Or we could even live a stone's throw from the Temple and not keep the Torah; until we are obedient enough to “get Egypt out our borders”, no longer longing for its comforts and securities, we still cannot arrive. Part of what held us captive is still alive; though Pharaoh is dead, but are all the firstborn of Egypt dead to us? The Hebrew term firstborn also encompasses the firstfruits. Are the firstfruits of our thoughts Hebrew or Egyptian? Do we still serve death in order to get through the present situation? Do we use the contrived calendar in order to know everything in advance? (Egypt's main focus was preparing for death.). We must search out all the foreign firstfruits in order to go Home. We will usually find them “by night”--in the dark places where we avoid having the light shine. We must not hide any Egyptians behind the Passover Lamb (Yahshua)'s blood. Do not let our shortfallings be an excuse; let the messenger of death slay them too. The Torah says we can keep the commands; it is not too hard. (30:12) So we put tzitziyoth on the borders of our garments to make it known that within these boundaries, Torah will rule. 2. "So slaughter a Passover to YHWH your Elohim--flock and herd [animal]--in the place where YHWH your Elohim shall choose for the dwelling of His name.
Passover: not a day or time, but the animal that is slaughtered. A lamb or goat is not specified here, nor is its age, as it was at the first Passover (Ex. 12:5), and for the first time a herd animal--bovine--is said to be pemitted. This was after the golden calf incident, and YHWH may be thus allowing us to slaughter what we once credited with redeeming us from Egypt. Or they may now have had many more cattle than they had while in Egypt because of the plunder of the Egyptians. In the context of 15:21, it would almost appear that “Passover” should be translated "a lame animal" because the word is spelled the same, the connection being that the animal with a lame leg "skips over" that leg when hobbling, as the death angel "skipped over" the homes that had the lamb's blood on the doors. But the term Passover can also mean “to hesitate”. It may be fears, old loyalties, desires for anything that has no kingdom profit, condemna-tion, others' opinions, or immaturity that cause us to hesitate to kill off the Egyptian in us as Moshe did. (Ex. 2:12) A bull was one's most valuable possession in ancient times. One could plow with it, breed more herds with it, throw a feast with it, or eat it for a very long time, so it represents security, and this is something else we need to “sacrifice” if it leads us to hesitate to do what the Kingdom needs. Restoration must come even at the cost of what is of great value to us. YHWH tells us to slaughter the hesitation; He will not do it for us. There is not one Passover lamb for the whole nation; there is one for each household, for we are each responsible to kill off whatever keeps our own household from moving forward out of Egypt. For the dwelling of His name: after the Tent of Appointment moved around to several places over the course of 410 years, the place eventually chosen was Yerushalayim, which is built over a grid of valleys shaped like the Hebrew letter "shiin", the abbreviation for Shaddai, the name often chosen when His name is to be written on a common object (like a doorpost mezuzzah, though not on articles associated with the Temple, on which YHWH was engraved). YHWH is present when two or three are gathered; while we can certainly pray as individuals, if not a shared venture, it is not as strong, and “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”
3. "You may not eat leaven in addition to it; seven days you must eat in addition to it unleavened loaves--bread of affliction, since you left Egypt in a hurry--in order that you may remember the day of your leaving the land of Egypt all the days of your life.
Leaven: literally, sourdough. In addition: literally, on top of. Sourness is not an appropriate “topping” for the meat that celebrates YHWH's deliverance. Bread of affliction: or weakness, poverty, humiliation. But the term also means “busyness” and that is why there is a hurriedness (trepidation, alarm, hasty flight) about it. Rashi writes, “The dough [that you had prepared for eating] did not have time to become leavened, so this [matzah] will be for you as a reminder.” And so it still is, over 3,000 years later. Leavening is a natural process if dough is left alone long enough, especially in a warm setting, so it must be cooked before that process can take place. Leaven is a picture of anything that permeates the whole, whether it be sin (1 Corinthians 5:6) or the Kingdom (Mat. 13:33). If we are busy enough with the Kingdom, the community will not be leavened with the wrong things. The more we spend time among the Egyptians, the more we will be leavened with their ways even if we do not intend to be. All the days of your life: Every day we should examine the places in which we are not making steps toward the Promised Land.
4. "Moreover, no leaven belonging to you may be seen within any of your territories [for] seven days, nor shall any of the meat which you slaughtered on the first day at evening remain overnight until morning.
Belonging to you: This may be the loophole that leads some to sell it to outsiders and then buy it back after this week is over, but that ruins the picture YHWH intends of removing the pervasive influence of sin from our lives. Why? Because we should not depend today on what was given us for yesterday. It becomes profaned if what was a holy meal later becomes merely our security and sustenance. But also, once we slaughter it there should be no hesitation left.
5. "You cannot slaughter the Passover within any of your towns that YHWH your Elohim is giving to you;
You cannot: If you do it anywhere but in His choice of place, it is not the Passover. And if one does it alone, rather than as part of a house, it is not the Passover. Any of your towns: literally, "one of your gates". Though it is celebrated family by family, it is more than merely a family meal; it must be done along with the rest of Israel (not in the church down the street). It is a national event, which is all the more reason we must not hesitate to change from the contrived calendar to the one YHWH authorized, so that all can obey at the same time.
6. "rather, [go] to the place where YHWH your Elohim shall select for the dwelling of His Name. There you shall slaughter the Passover in the evening, around the setting of the sun [as at the] time of your departure from Egypt.
Around: This leaves flexibility for the procedure to be done either slightly before or slightly after sunset, in case the day that is ending or the day beginning is the Sabbath, in which case the fire to roast it (Ex. 12:8) could not be lit.
7. "Then cook and eat [it] in the place that YHWH your Elohim chooses, and in the morning turn and walk to your tents.
Cook: often specifically the word for boil, but unless after the first time the method is less strictly defined, we are limited by the original instruction not to boil it with water (Ex. 12:9), so when water is not specified, this must be understood as a general overarching term that can include roasting. Tents: This command is for the time we are in the Land (vv. 5-6), when we would normally live in houses. Therefore, we must surmise that YHWH intends for us to dwell in temporary dwellings not only at Sukkoth, but at Passover as well (and by extension, probably Shavuoth as well, though it is a one-day festival). It is only logical that so many people coming for the three pilgrimage festivals would not all be able to be housed in buildings when Yerushalayim at its heyday had only 30,000 people living within the city walls. In fact, it appears from Y'hezq'el 45 that an open area will be left around the Temple precincts in the Kingdom for this very purpose. Israel is a people that is marked by the characteristic of dwelling in tents when in YHWH's direct presence. He Himself dwelt in a tent, and this symbolizes our readiness to move when He moves. In fact, YHWH even says He will again have us dwell in tents as at the days of the appointed feasts (Hoshea 12:9). In the morning: On the first Pesakh, everyone was told to stay in their houses until morning (Ex. 12:22), and when YHWH's house is in place, we are told to stay in His house all night and not go back to our own tents until morning. Rashi says, “This teaches that [the pilgrim] is required to remain [in Jerusalem] the night when the Festival [first day of Chag ha Matzah] terminates. -- [Sifrei ; Pes. 95b; Chag. 17a-b]”
8. "Six days you shall eat unleavened loaves, and on the seventh [hold] a festive closing assembly to YHWH your Elohim; you must do no servile labor.
We still eat only unleavened bread on the seventh day as well (Ex. 12:15), but the seventh day is different. Like the eighth day of Sukkoth, it is literally a “restraint”. Some take it to mean restraint from work, and that it is in a way, but it is more like a restraining in the sense of an enclosing and sealing up of what has been accomplished in the preceding days. It can also mean an “encore”, and this year we actually do get that, since we can't return to the leaven until after the 8th day, because it is Shabbat this time. “Closing assembly” also connotes “an affectionate farewell” to the feast, so in many ways it is a “Grand Finale”. Exodus 13:6 calls it “a feast for YHWH”. It is a time to recall what we have learned during this week that will better suit us to be “food” that He enjoys. No servile labor: LXX, "no work, except what is necessary for a soul", i.e., to preserve life. Some may say that it is more important to not eat leaven than to eat unleavened bread, but both are expressly commanded. Bread is a picture of community, as seen in the Bread of the Faces that represented 12 tribes in unity. Unleavened bread speaks of undefiled community.
9. "Count for yourself seven weeks. Start counting seven weeks from when you first put the sickle to the standing grain.
Count for yourself: Each person must count the days. This is a command easy enough for the youngest children to participate in. Look for a message in the number of each day, such as connections with the numerical value of Hebrew words. Lev. 23:11 specifies the day on which this count is to begin. It is the day after the weekly Sabbath that falls during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The Prushim (Pharisees) understood it to be the second day of the Feast every year, but that would sometimes require harvesting (which is work) on a Sabbath. The way the Tzadoqim (Sadducees) understood it, it can never fall on a Sabbath, and we are told to count seven complete sabbaths (not just weeks) and the next day, the 50th, is Shavuoth. (v. 10; Lev. 23:15) If counting from the Passover, and the next day was a Sabbath, there would only be 43 days by the time seven Sabbaths are completed. There was much ceremony at the Temple on this day. Not every field would be ready to begin harvest that day since though Israel is a tiny nation, the climate varies greatly within its borders. In Second Temple times, there was a specific field planted by the priests where the appearance of the aviv set the calendar for the whole nation, and the representative firstfruits were brought from this field. As other fields ripened, the firstfruits would be brought on the next trip to the Temple--Shavuoth for most.
10. "Then observe the Feast of Weeks to YHWH your Elohim--a freewill offering in proportion to what you can afford, commensurate with how YHWH your Elohim may bless you.
Then: the day after the 7th sabbath. Weeks: Heb., Shavuoth. Freewill offering: yet it is still expected to be in an amount relative to one's means, so it is in some sense mandatory as well. Afford: literally, “what your hand can reach”, which may be more than what you think you can “afford”! This gift is for the priests.
11. "And rejoice in the presence of YHWH your Elohim--you, your son, your daughter, your slave, your concubine, the Levite who is within your precinct, and the guest, the fatherless, and the orphan who are among you, in the place where YHWH your Elohim has chosen for His name to dwell.
Rejoice: We are not permitted to be sad or melancholy at this time. No worrying about the days that follow. Also, note that you cannot leave your servants or family members home to tend to business back home during this feast. Everyone goes. Our personal business should not even be running during this feast. No one is working, and all are serving--except those who are regularly servants!
12. "Now remember, because you were a slave in Egypt, so be careful to carry out these prescribed customs.
If we do not remember, we will inevitably be enslaved again. (Yochanan 8:34) This is also another reminder of why it is important not to make your slave work on this day. (v. 11)
13. "Put the Feast of Temporary Dwellings into effect for yourself [for] seven days, when you have gathered in [the crops] from your threshing floor and your wine press,
Now it skips ahead four months. Temporary dwellings (Heb., Sukkoth,): Lev. 23:42 specifies that we must dwell in these during this particular feast. So you cannot stay home to observe this feast! Threshing floor and wine press: thus chiefly grain and vineyard products. Rashi says these are things that have grown from the ground, have become detached, and are therefore not susceptible to ritual uncleanness since they are not foods and are not vessels.
14. "and rejoice in the feast---you, your son, your daughter, your slave, your concubine, and the Levite, the guest, the fatherless, and the widow who are within your gates.
15. "Celebrate a feast for seven days in the place that YHWH shall choose, because YHWH your Elohim will bless you in all your produce and in all the undertakings of your hands; so you must be nothing but joyful!
Feast: includes the concepts of pilgrimage, reeling [possibly from strong drink], and dancing in a circle. YHWH wants His people to have fun, but not at one another's expense; make sure everyone among us, especially the priests, are enjoying the festivities as well. Produce: crop yield or revenue of any kind. An 8th day is added in Lev. 23:36.
16. "Three times a year all your males shall appear before YHWH your Elohim at the place which He shall choose: at the feast of Unleavened Loaves, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Booths. Moreover, you they shall not appear before YHWH empty [handed],
This summarizes the first 15 verses of the chapter. All your males: The foregoing verses say to bring the whole household, but it is the responsibility of the men twenty years and older to ensure that this takes place. This may also be put here to allow pregnant or nursing women to be exempted form the journey, though Yahshua's mother made the 60-mile journey there for Sukkoth immediately before his birth, so her example can be motivational to others as well.
17. "[but] each with the gift that he can afford commensurate with the blessing that YHWH your Elohim has given you."
The priest already gets a cut of anything brought, but a large part of the festivals is giving more than we have to. We are not fully involved in the feast unless we are invested in it. This is not limited to monetary gifts or donated animals. It includes studying so we can come up as learned scholars able to teach others, especially newcomers, the meaning of what is going on. It also means coming with an attitude of being ready to serve one another.
Parashat Re'eh
(Deuteronomy 11:26 - 16:17)
