CHAPTER 2

1.  "‘And when a person brings a [grain] offering with which to draw near to YHWH, his offering shall be of fine flour, and he shall pour oil upon it and put frankincense on it,

Person: This does not do the Hebrew word justice; the term is nefesh, which means “soul” or “life-force”.  This is not a tangible thing, but neither is it abstract.  It is the life force” that energizes and animates us on a level deeper than food does.  It is the non-physical part of us that lets us laugh, cry, think, and speak.  It is considered the real person, for when it departs from a body, it is considered just a corpse.  Though DNA also may contribute to the personality, the soul is what provides life to our being.  So this is not a merely physical act; it must be brought from the level of our soul—from the spark at our very core, as if it is a part of our life itself, for the word for “grain offering”  literally means a piece or portion, but with the added connotation of “a tribute-gift".  We offer part of what keeps us alive. We bring what we are really all about, a part of our very essence.  In this case there should be no separation of physical from spiritual; something tangible must be brought, but with a burning desire to do so.  If it is not deeper than the physical action, we are really bringing nothing.  A gift must be something of value to the receiver, or we are just dumping something off on him that we no longer want.  This is not a grand and glorious gift that we have to save and save to be able to bring, like a bull; it is an everyday thing.  It is not about special moments like the Sabbath or festivals; it is a picture of turning over to YHWH an additional part of our lives to keep whatever measure of Him has moved back in dwelling at our core. He is not there in His fullness yet, but the more of a place we prepare for Him, the more He moves into. This is offering another part of ourselves in order to please Him—not to avoid having Him beat us, but because we really want to.  It is something we have prepared purposefully and brought to maturity by putting time into it, constantly refining it like the fine flour the offering consists of, so that we are not giving Him something stale and lumpy, but something that will keep our Husband at home like the smell of fresh-baked bread.  It still has the energy in it, and our gift must likewise be something we have poured our lives into.  This is not blackmail, but a love affair.  He is constantly responding to us, and we want to keep the spark alive by offering to be more completely responsible in some area.  It is an everyday thing because there is never a time when we have nothing left top offer YHWH; in each season there are new areas to turn over to Him or to turn over more fully.  Yehudah even has a beautiful prayer that offers to YHWH even the act of getting out of bed in the morning. It gives Him the credit for reuniting soul and body after whatever the world of dreams has done to affect the consciousness.  We should thank Him for such “everyday” things as the fact that the sun is still shining and we have breakfast to eat.  And the Hebrew word for “thank” really means “stretching out the hand”, for there must be action involved, not just words.  We give Him the portion He is due by thanking Him for it, then, like this offering, we give the remainder to provide for YHWH’s servants.  Take what He has given, give Him the credit for it, then pass it along to someone else.

2.  "‘ and he must bring it to the sons of Aharon the priest. And he will grasp from it His handful of fine flour along with some of its oil in addition to all of its frankincense, then the priest must burn its memorial portion like incense [with smoke] on the altar, an offering with fire, a soothing aroma to YHWH.

When he gives it to YHWH’s representative, he must add something to it.  This is a picture of YHWH responding to what we have offered. Don’t let Him come home to a dark house or unwashed pots, as the music group Santana said. Show that you have been thinking about the details of what He wants in a home.  A handful is burned to remind YHWH that we are here, “preparing His dinner”, before the rest goes to serve YHWH’s servants.  He has fed us, so we must go and feed someone else.  The Sabbath and festivals are not enough to repair the world (or more accurately, the universe), as large a part as they do play; if everyday things are not also repaired, it will constantly fall back into decay.  We need to keep offering more parts of ourselves to keep the house livable for YHWH.  If the human energy is removed from a house, it crumbles quickly.  You never know what the effect will be until you get yourself ready, but it will always be positive.  YHWH knows how to deal best with each part we give Him; let Him invest it where the greatest yield will be, because He is a far greater expert than Warren Buffett. Sometimes it is as simple as saying—and doing—“thank you”.  Our thanksgiving to YHWH can end in the hungry being fed or the oppressed being comforted.  Burns: not in the sense of consuming, so much as releasing a fragrance through heating, as the word is qatar, related to qetoreth (incense). It is about the smell.  Smells can bring back very old memories perfectly, letting us relive wonderful moments from our childhood, while other smells can repulse us.  This is a specific blend that He likes, as a husband has certainly perfumes he prefers to smell on his wife; it is burned for His pleasure.  While YHWH is concerned about the ways we are “burned out” by our circumstances, attitudes, or mistakes, our worse side is not what He prefers to “smell”; remember, we are approaching a King.  Give Him incense before presenting your problems to Him; after thanking Him for the wonders He has wrought, our problems may not seem so insurmountable after all. He can handle them too.  This is not bribing the King; it is showing Him respect.   A soothing aroma to YHWH: It means something that makes Him relax. 

3.  "‘What is left over of the grain offering is for Aharon and his sons, [being] the holiest of the fire offerings of YHWH.

A portion is sent on ahead of us into the Kingdom which has not yet come, but the rest is given to YHWH’s servants who live in the present, so they can feed the things of the Kingdom here and now.  You are only giving yourself to YHWH if you are giving of yourself to His servants.  What is withheld from them is actually being denied Him.  No one can give to Him simply “in his heart”; a major way to put our faith to work is to provide for the servants of YHWH under whose care He has put us.  This first option of how to offer one’s grain is plain dough, probably patted into a cake and placed on top of the altar on a piece of wood that would be burned.  It is ready to use, but not ready to eat.  As dough, it lets the priests choose how they want to use it, so it is a reasonable sacrifice to give ourselves to YHWH (Rom. 12:2), but to become "bread" (1 Cor. 10:17), we have to be joined together with others.  Bread is a picture of community.  The remainder of the grain offerings are ready to eat.  More of our energy is poured into them:

4.  "‘And when you bring near a grain offering baked in an oven, [it is to be] unleavened loaves of fine flour mixed with oil or [thin] unleavened wafers, anointed with oil.

5."‘And if your offering is a grain offering cooked on a flat griddle, its shall be of fine flour without leaven, mixed with oil.

6."‘You shall break it in pieces and pour oil on it; it is a grain offering.

7.  "‘And if the grain offering is [cooked] in a pot, it shall be of fine flour made with oil.

A pot: one deep enough to stir in; alt., a stewing pot.  A bagel literally means “boiled”, but that is also leavened; the emphasis here is on the type of vessel, and does not necessarily include water. 

8. "‘And you shall bring the grain offering which is made of these things to YHWH, and the priest shall bring it near the altar,

Four different ways of forming a community are thus depicted here. YHWH has many ways of bringing us together, some of them quite opposite of one another in many ways, and none is inherently better than the others. The preparation of each is different, and YHWH has different ways of applying the heat in each congregation, but all of them can be offered up to YHWH and His servants if they have the required key ingredients of grain and oil.  We present it to YHWH by presenting it to His servants; we cannot give it outside the community unless we are giving it inside in everyday matters.  The community must have people whom YHWH has crushed and who have the Spirit of Being Set-Apart, or they will be unable to stick together.  When all is ground up and mixed together inseparably, no bird can come steal a kernel away. 

9.  "‘and the priest will lift out from the grain offering its memorial portion and burn it like incense on the altar [as] a fire-offering, a soothing aroma to YHWH.

Lift out: Aramaic, "separate off".  This time the offering goes a step further: it is not just pulverized grain, but actual bread—a picture of a whole community offering something up to YHWH together.  But this is completely ready for consumption; the servants do not need to work on it any further; they can eat it right away.

10.  "‘And the remainder of the food offering is for Aharon and his sons, [being] most holy, the fire offerings of YHWH.

11.  "‘You must not leaven any food offering that you bring near to YHWH, because you may not burn any leaven or burn any honey as a fire offering to YHWH.

The term “leaven” (se’or), the leavening agent as opposed to khametz, that which is leavened, is rooted in a word that means to swell up.  Leavening represents sin, especially pride, which puffs up and makes us look like more than we are.  When bread is leavened, there is really no additional nutrient or anything of substance or benefit.  For better or worse, leaven in Scripture always means something that irreversibly permeates. (It is used in a positive sense in Mat. 13:33.)  Don’t fake doing the right thing; commit to it and do it.  Actions change our attitudes and our priorities.  Treat someone better than you feel like treating him, and it will become easier to do so genuinely.  Leaven only slows down the process.  Matzah shows exactly how much you have really brought.  Here, honey represents deception, because it makes the flour seem artificially sweet.  It gives a better impression, but a false one.  He wants His altar to be a place of complete honesty toward Him, one another, and our own selves.  He will not be fooled in any case, and eventually everyone else will be able to smell the difference.  As Yahshua pointed out with the widow who gave everything she had (Luke 21:4), a piece of matzah that is smaller than a leavened loaf might actually have twice the amount of real nutrition in it than the larger loaf.  Don’t pretend to be giving more than you really are.  As we seek out the leaven in our lives in preparation for Passover, other things—more positive--will turn up that we had lost track of.  So pay attention to what you do have that you can offer to YHWH.  Anything that is worth offering should be used for the Kingdom.  We might need to refine it more first, but give Him new gifts.  Thank Him for something you have never thanked Him for before.  Find Kingdom uses for everyday things.  Give something to go in YHWH’s tent—a fresh loaf of bread from your soul.  It will make Him want to stay.

Vayiqra/Leviticus

Introduction:






Commentary on
Parashat VaYiqra
Making YHWH Want to Stay
This book begins where Exodus left off: The Dwelling Place (mishkan) has been built, and there is now a shift from chiefly historical records to specific instructions about what is to take place there and how to relate to YHWH’s dwelling among us again after having moved away due to His bride’s unfaithfulness.  He is now back in the House, and the focus is on what we can do to run the household in such a way that He will want to stay.  There is much here about drawing near with blood offerings, but this time we will concentrate on the non-animal offerings, in which no blood is shed. At each meal we bless the One who brings forth bread from the earth, and this, of course, is in the form of grain rather than already-baked bread!  Grain is the most basic staple, and everyone watches the crops to know if they will have enough to eat.  YHWH built His calendar right around the stages of readiness.  When the barley is nearly ready to harvest, the new year begins. It does not depend on complex calculations; they are for an agricultural people.  Even children can follow the cycles easily, because they are based on what we eat every day.  And some of the offerings He asks for are based on grain as well.  There is nothing in Hebrew that suggests that they are “sacrifices”.  There is no hint of this concept in the Hebrew terminology, and even “offerings”, though used here at times to deal with English grammatical structure, is a very inadequate way to think of them.  The actual Hebrew term means “an approach” or “drawing near” (qorban).  This makes a world of difference in how we regard them.  It is about intimacy with YHWH, which is never a sacrifice, but a blessing.  These are all things that comprise a meal with which we seal our relationship with Him.  The grain offerings are found in chapter 2: