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Triennial Cycle (Triennial Torah Cycle) /
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Three and 1/2 year Lectionary Readings |
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Nisan 08, 5778 – March 23/24, 2018 |
Third Year of the Shmita Cycle |
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husband HE Adon James Miller
For their regular and
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with all Yisrael and her Torah Scholars, amen ve amen!
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We pray for Her
Honor Ha Rabbanit Giberet Elisheba bat Sarah who I suffering from bouts of loss
of equilibrium. Mi Sheberach – He Who blessed our holy and pure
Matriarchs, Sarah, Ribkah, Rachel and Leah, bless Her Honor Ha Rabbanit Giberet
Elisheba bat Sarah and send her a complete recovery and strengthening of body
and soul. Please G-d heal her, please. Please G-d heal her, please. Please G-d
heal her, please. Cure her, strengthen her, make her healthy and return her to
her original strength, together with all the sick of Yisrael. And may it be so
willed, and we will say, Amen ve Amen!
We pray for Her
Excellency Giberet Sarai bat Sarah who is having some housing difficulties. May
she and her beloved husband be guided by Ha-Shem’s mighty hand, most blessed be
He, concerning either the purchase of a new home or renting a new one closer to
her husband’s work-place.
We also pray
for a problem with a property of H.E. Giberet Leah whose neighbor is spreading
Lashon Hara to anyone who approaches to buy, resulting in buyers going back on
their intention to purchase the property. This is very important to H.E.
Giberet Leah. Let us pray for HaShem’s mighty and just intervention in this
matter, and that this property be sold speedily soon, and let us say, amen ve
amen!
We pray for His
Excellency Adon Jonah Lindemann (age 18), and His Excellency Adon Bart
Lindemann. Jr. (age 20). [the sons of His Excellency Adon Barth Lindemann] who
have recently been diagnosed with Asperger’s disease (a “spectrum
disorder”). Their father asks that we pray that he can find for his two
young sons the appropriate and good professional assistance that they urgently
need. Mi Sheberach – He who blessed
our forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Moses and Aaron, David and Solomon,
may He bless and heal Their Excellencies Adon Bart Lindemann Jr. & Adon
Jonah Lindemann, May the Holy One, Blessed is He, be filled with compassion for
them to restore their health, to heal them, to strengthen them, and to revivify
them. And may He send them speedily a complete recovery from heaven, among the
other sick people of Yisrael, a recovery of the body and a recovery of the
spirit and mind, swiftly and soon, and we say amen ve amen!
We pray also for H.E. Giberet Rachel bat Batsheva who is afflicted with systemic mastocytosis. Mi Sheberach – He Who blessed our holy and pure Matriarchs, Sarah, Ribkah, Rachel and Leah, bless Her Excellency Giberet Rachel bat Batsheva and send her a complete recovery and strengthening of body and soul. Please G-d heal her, please. Please G-d heal her, please. Please G-d heal her, please. Cure her, strengthen her, make her healthy and return her to her original strength, together with all the sick of Yisrael. And may it be so willed, and we will say, Amen ve Amen!
Blessings
Before Torah Study
Blessed are You, Ha-Shem our GOD,
King of the universe, Who has sanctified us through Your commandments, and
commanded us to actively study Torah. Amen!
Please Ha-Shem, our GOD,
sweeten the words of Your Torah in our mouths and in the mouths of all Your
people Israel. May we and our offspring, and our offspring's offspring, and all
the offspring of Your people, the House of Israel, may we all, together, know
Your Name and study Your Torah for the sake of fulfilling Your delight. Blessed are You, Ha-Shem, Who
teaches Torah to His people Israel. Amen!
Blessed are You, Ha-Shem our GOD,
King of the universe, Who chose us from all the nations, and gave us the Torah.
Blessed are You, Ha-Shem, Giver of the Torah. Amen!
Ha-Shem spoke to Moses, explaining a Commandment. "Speak to Aaron
and his sons and teach them the following Commandment: This is how you should
bless the Children of Israel. Say to the Children of Israel:
May Ha-Shem bless you and keep watch over you; - Amen!
May Ha-Shem make His Presence enlighten you, and may He be kind to you;
- Amen!
May Ha-Shem bestow favour on you and grant you peace. – Amen!
This way, the priests will link My Name with the Israelites, and I will
bless them."
These are the Laws for which the Torah did not mandate specific amounts:
How much growing produce must be left in the corner of the field for the poor;
how much of the first fruits must be offered at the Holy Temple; how much one
must bring as an offering when one visits the Holy Temple three times a year;
how much one must do when doing acts of kindness; and there is no maximum
amount of Torah that a person must study.
These are the Laws whose
benefits a person can often enjoy even in this world, even though the primary
reward is in the Next World: They are: Honoring one's father and mother; doing
acts of kindness; early attendance at the place of Torah study -- morning and
night; showing hospitality to guests; visiting the sick; providing for the
financial needs of a bride; escorting the dead; being very engrossed in prayer;
bringing peace between two people, and between husband and wife; but the study
of Torah is as great as all of them together. Amen!
Shabbat HaGadol – The Great Sabbath
|
Shabbat |
Torah Reading: |
Weekday Torah Reading: |
|
הַגָּדוֹל |
|
Saturday Afternoon |
|
“HaGadol” |
Reader 1 – B’Midbar 19:1-3 |
Reader 1 – B’Midbar 20:14-16 |
|
“The Great” |
Reader 2 – B’Midbar 19:4-6 |
Reader 2 – B’Midbar 20:17-19 |
|
“El Grande” |
Reader 3 – B’Midbar 19:7-10 |
Reader 3 – B’Midbar 20:19-22 |
|
Num. 19:1 – 20:13 |
Reader 4 – B’Midbar 19:11-16 |
|
|
Judges 11:1-11 |
Reader 5 – B’Midbar 19:17-22 |
Monday
and Thursday Mornings |
|
Special: Malachi 3:4-24* |
Reader 6 – B’Midbar 20:1-6 |
Reader 1 – B’Midbar 20:14-16 |
|
Psalms: 103:10-14 |
Reader 7 – B’Midbar 20:7-13 |
Reader 2 – B’Midbar 20:17-19 |
|
|
Maftir – B’Midbar
20:7-13 |
Reader 3 – B’Midbar 20:19-22 |
|
Mk
10:35:41: Lk 12:49-53; Rm 10:1-21 |
Judges
11:1-11 Malachi
3:4-24* |
|
* To be read by the greatest Torah Scholar available to the
local congregation.
Summary of
the Torah Seder - B’Midbar (Num.) 19:1 - 20:13
·
Numbers 19:1-10 – Preparation of the Ashes
of the Red Heifer
·
Numbers 19:11-13 – The Specific Purpose of
the Water for Purification
·
Numbers 19:14-22 – Mode of Purification
·
Numbers 20:1 – Death of Miriam
·
Numbers 20:2-9 – Striking the Rock
·
Numbers 20:10-13 – Sin of Moses and Aharon
Reading
Assignment:
The Torah Anthology: Yalkut Me’Am Lo’Ez - Vol 14: Numbers – II – Final
Wonderings
By: Rabbi Yitzchaq Magriso
Published by: Moznaim Publishing Corp. (New York, 1983)
Vol. 14 – “Numbers – II – Final Wonderings,” pp. 67-91
Rashi & Targum Pseudo Jonathan
for: B’Midbar
(Num.) 19:1 - 20:13
|
Rashi |
Targum |
|
1. The
Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying: |
1. AND the Lord spoke with Mosheh and Aharon,
saying: |
|
2. This
is the statute of the Torah which the Lord commanded, saying, Speak to the
children of Israel and have them take for you a perfectly red unblemished
cow, upon which no yoke was laid. |
2. This
is the decree, the publication of the law which the LORD has commanded,
saying; Speak to the sons of Israel, that they bring to you from the
separation of the fold a red heifer, two years old, in which there is neither
spot nor white hair, on which no male has come, nor the burden of any work
been imposed, neither hurt by the thong, nor grieved by the goad or prick,
nor collar (band) or any like yoke. |
|
3. And
you shall give it to Eleazar the kohen, and he shall take it outside the camp
and slaughter it in his presence. |
3. And
you will give her unto Elazar, the chief of the priests, who will lead her
alone without the camp, and set round about her a railing (border) of the
branches of fig trees; and another priest will slay her with the two signs
before him, after the manner of other animals, and examine her by the
eighteen kinds of divisions. |
|
4. Eleazar
the kohen shall take from its blood with his finger and sprinkle it toward
the front of the Tent of Meeting seven times. |
4. And
Elazar, in his priestly dress, will take of her blood with the finger of his
right hand, without (first) containing it in a vessel, and will sprinkle the
border of fig branches, and (afterwards) from the midst of a vessel on one
side towards the tabernacle of ordinance, with one dipping, seven times (will
he sprinkle). |
|
5. The
cow shall then be burned in his presence; its hide, its flesh, its blood,
with its dung he shall burn it. |
5. And
they will bring her out from the midst of the railing and another priest, while
Elazar looks on, will burn the heifer, her skin, flesh, and blood, with her
dung will he burn. |
|
6. The
kohen shall take a piece of cedar wood, hyssop, and crimson wool, and cast
them into the burning of the cow. |
6. And
another priest will take a piece of cedar wood and hyssop, and (wool) whose
color has been changed to scarlet, and throw them into the midst of the
burning of the heifer; and he will enlarge the burning, that the ashes may be
increased. |
|
7. The
kohen shall wash his garments and bathe his flesh in water, and then he may
enter the camp, and the kohen shall be unclean until evening. |
7. And
the priest who slew the heifer will wash his dress in forty satas of water,
and afterwards he may go into the camp; but the priest before his ablution
will be unclean until the evening. |
|
8. The
one who burns it shall wash his clothes in water and cleanse his body in
water, and he shall be unclean until evening. |
8. And
the priest who was employed in the burning will wash his dress in forty satas
of water, and his flesh in forty satas, and before his ablution will be
unclean until the evening. |
|
9. A
ritually clean person shall gather the cow's ashes and place them outside the
camp in a clean place, and It shall be as a keepsake for the congregation of
the children of Israel for sprinkling water, [used] for cleansing. |
9. And
a man, a priest who is clean, will gather up the ashes of the heifer in an
earthenware receptacle, its opening covered round about with clay; and will
divide the ashes into three portions, of which one will be placed within the
wall (of Jerusalem), another in the Mount of Olives, and the third portion be
in the custody of the Levites; and it will be for the congregation of Israel,
for the Water of Sprinkling: it is the heifer (immolated) for the remission
of sins. |
|
10. The
one who gathers the cow's ashes shall wash his clothes, and he shall be
unclean until evening. It shall be an everlasting statute for the children of
Israel and for the proselyte who resides in their midst. |
10. And
the priest who gathered up the ashes of the heifer will wash his clothes, and
before his ablution be unclean till the evening. And this will be for the
cleansing of the children of Israel, a statute for ever. |
|
11, Anyone
touching the corpse of a human soul shall become unclean for seven days. |
11. Whoever touches the body of a dead man, or
of a child of some months old, either his body or his blood, will be unclean
seven days. |
|
12. On
the third and seventh days, he shall cleanse himself with it, so that he can
become clean. But if he does not sprinkle himself with it on the third and
seventh days, he shall not become clean. |
12. He
will sprinkle himself with this water of the ashes on the third day, and on
the seventh day he will be clean. But if he sprinkle not himself on the third
day, his uncleanness will remain upon him, and he will not be clean on the
seventh day. |
|
13. Whoever
touches the corpse of a human soul which dies, and he does not cleanse
himself, he has defiled the Mishkan of the Lord, and that soul shall be cut
off from Israel. For the sprinkling water was not sprinkled on him, so he
remains unclean, and his uncleanness remains upon him. |
13. Whoever has touched the body of a dead man,
or of a child nine months old, either the body or the blood, and will not
sprinkle himself, he has defiled the tabernacle of the LORD, and that man
will be cut off from Israel; forasmuch as the water of sprinkling is not
sprinkled upon him, he is unclean, his uncleanness is yet on him, until he
will sprinkle himself; yet may he sprinkle and make ablution on the seventh
evening. |
|
14. This
is the law: if a man dies in a tent, anyone entering the tent and anything in
the tent shall be unclean for seven days. |
14. This
is the indication of the law concerning a man when he has died under the
outspread tent everyone who enters into the tent by the way of the door, but
not from its side, when its door is open, (or when one has opened its door,)
and whatever is in the tent, its floor, stone, wood, and vessels, will be
unclean seven days. |
|
15. Any
open vessel which has no seal fastened around it becomes unclean. |
15. And every earthen vessel which has no
covering fastened upon its mouth, which would have kept it separate from the
uncleanness, is defiled by the uncleanness of the air which touches its
mouth, and its interior, and not the outside of it (only). |
|
16. Anyone
who touches one slain by the sword, or a corpse, or a human bone or a grave,
in an open field, he shall be unclean for seven days. |
16. And whoever will touch not one who has died
in his mother's womb, but who has been slain with the sword on the face of
the field, or the sword with which he was slain, or the dead man himself, or
a bone of his, or the hair, or the bone of a living man which has been
separated from him, or a grave, or a shroud, or the bier, will be unclean
seven days. |
|
17. They
shall take for that unclean person from the ashes of the burnt purification
offering, and it shall be placed in a vessel [filled] with spring water. |
17. And for him who is unclean, they will take
of the ashes of the burnt sin offering, and put spring water upon them in an
earthen vessel. |
|
18. A
ritually clean person shall take the hyssop and dip it into the water and
sprinkle it on the tent, on all the vessels, and on the people who were in
it, and on anyone who touched the bone, the slain person, the corpse, or the
grave. |
18. And let a man, a priest, who is clean, take
three branches of hyssop bound. together, and dip (them) in the water at the
time of receiving the uncleanness, and sprinkle the tent and all its vessels,
and the men who are in it, or upon him who has touched the bone of a living
man that has been severed from him, and has fallen, or him who has been slain
with the sword, or has died by the plague, or a grave, or a wrapper, or a
bier. |
|
19. The
ritually clean person shall sprinkle on the unclean person on the third day
and on the seventh day, and he shall cleanse him on the seventh day, and he
shall wash his clothes and bathe in water, and he shall become ritually clean
in the evening. |
19. And
the priest who is clean will sprinkle upon the unclean man on the, third day,
and on the seventh day, and will make him clean on the seventh day; and he
will sprinkle his clothes, and wash himself with water, and at eventide be
clean. |
|
20. If
a person becomes unclean and does not cleanse himself, that soul shall be cut
off from the congregation, for he has defiled the Sanctuary of the Lord; the
sprinkling waters were not sprinkled upon him. He is unclean. |
20. But
the unclean man who will not be sprinkled, that man will be cut off from
among the congregation, because he has defiled the sanctuary of the LORD; the
water of sprinkling has not been sprinkled upon him, he is unclean. |
|
21. This
shall be for them as a perpetual statute, and the one who sprinkles the
sprinkling waters shall wash his clothes, and one who touches the sprinkling
waters shall be unclean until evening. |
21. And it will be unto you an everlasting
statute. The priest, also, who sprinkles the water of sprinkling will sprinkle
his clothes, and he who touches the water of sprinkling will be unclean until
evening. |
|
22. Whatever
the unclean one touches shall become unclean, and anyone touching him shall
be unclean until evening. |
22. And whatever the unclean person has touched,
though he carry it not, will be unclean; and the clean man who touches him
will be unclean till evening. |
|
|
|
|
1. The
entire congregation of the children of Israel arrived at the desert of Zin in
the first month, and the people settled in Kadesh. Miriam died there and was
buried there. |
1. And the whole congregation of the children
of Israel came to the desert of Zin on the tenth day of the month Nisan. And
Miriam died there, and was buried there. |
|
2. The
congregation had no water; so they assembled against Moses and Aaron. |
2. And as on account of the innocence of Miriam
a well had been given, so when she died the well was hidden, and the
congregation had no water. |
|
3. The
people quarreled with Moses, and they said, "If only we had died with
the death of our brothers before the Lord. |
3. And
they gathered against Mosheh and Aharon, and the people contended with
Mosheh, and said, Would that we had died when our brethren died before the
LORD! |
|
4. Why
have you brought the congregation of the Lord to this desert so that we and
our livestock should die there? |
4. And why have you brought the congregation of
the LORD into this desert, that we and our cattle may die here? |
|
5. Why
have you taken us out of Egypt to bring us to this evil place; it is not a
place for seeds, or for fig trees, grapevines, or pomegranate trees, and
there is no water to drink. |
5. And why did you make us come up out of
Mizraim., to bring us to this evil place, a place which is not fit for
sowing, or for planting fig trees, or vines, or pomegranates, and where there
is no water to drink? |
|
6. Moses
and Aaron moved away from the assembly to the entrance of the Tent of
Meeting, and they fell on their faces. [Then] the glory of the Lord appeared
to them. |
6. And Mosheh and Aharon went from the face of
the murmuring congregation to the door of the tabernacle of ordinance, and
bowed upon their faces, and the Glory of the LORD's Shekinah was revealed to
them. |
|
7. The
Lord spoke to Moses, saying: |
7. And
the LORD spoke with Mosheh, saying: |
|
8. "Take
the staff and assemble the congregation, you and your brother Aaron, and
speak to the rock in their presence so that it will give forth its water. You
shall bring forth water for them from the rock and give the congregation and
their livestock to drink." |
8. Take the rod of the miracles, and gather the
congregation, you, and Aharon your brother, and both of you adjure the rock,
by the Great and manifested Name, while they look on, and it will give forth
its waters: but if it refuse to bring forth, smite it once with the rod that
is in your hand, and you will bring out water for them from the rock, that
the congregation and their cattle may drink. |
|
9. Moses
took the staff from before the Lord as He had commanded him. |
9. And
Mosheh took the rod of the miracles from before the LORD, as he had commanded
him. |
|
10. Moses
and Aaron assembled the congregation in front of the rock, and he said to
them, "Now listen, you rebels, can we draw water for you from this
rock?" |
10. And
Mosheh and Aharon gathered the congregation together before the rock. And
Mosheh said to them, Hear now, rebels: is it possible for us to bring forth
water for you from this rock? |
|
11. Moses
raised his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice, when an abundance
of water gushed forth, and the congregation and their livestock drank. |
11. And
Mosheh lifted up his hand, and with his rod struck the rock two times: at the
first time it dropped blood; but at the second time there came forth a
multitude of waters. And the congregation and their cattle drank. |
|
12. The
Lord said to Moses and Aaron, "Since you did not have faith in Me to
sanctify Me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not
bring this assembly to the Land which I have given them. |
12. But the LORD spoke to Mosheh and Aharon with
the oath, Because you have not believed in My Word, to sanctify Me in the
sight of the children of Israel, therefore you will not bring this
congregation into the land that I will give them. |
|
13. These
are the waters of dispute [Mei Meribah] where the children of Israel
contended with the Lord, and He was sanctified through them. |
13. These
are the Waters of Contention, where the sons of Israel contended before the
LORD on account of the well that had been hidden; and He was sanctified in
them, in Mosheh and Aharon, when (the waters) were given to them. |
Welcome to
the World of P’shat Exegesis
In order to understand the finished work of the P’shat mode of
interpretation of the Torah, one needs to take into account that the P’shat is
intended to produce a catechetical output, whereby a question/s is/are raised
and an answer/a is/are given using the seven Hermeneutic Laws of R. Hillel and
as well as the laws of Hebrew Grammar and Hebrew expression.
The Seven Hermeneutic Laws of R. Hillel are as follows
[cf. http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=472&letter=R]:
1. Ḳal va-ḥomer: "Argumentum a minori ad
majus" or "a majori ad minus"; corresponding to the scholastic
proof a fortiori.
2. Gezerah shavah: Argument from analogy. Biblical passages containing synonyms or
homonyms are subject, however much they differ in other respects, to identical
definitions and applications.
3. Binyan ab mi-katub eḥad: Application of a provision found in
one passage only to passages which are related to the first in content but do
not contain the provision in question.
4. Binyan ab mi-shene ketubim: The same as the preceding, except
that the provision is generalized from two Biblical passages.
5. Kelal u-Peraṭ and Peraṭ u-kelal: Definition of the general by
the particular, and of the particular by the general.
6. Ka-yoẓe bo mi-maḳom aḥer: Similarity in content to
another Scriptural passage.
7. Dabar ha-lamed me-'inyano: Interpretation deduced from the
context.
Rashi Commentary for: B’Midbar
(Num.) 19:1 – 20:13
Chapter 19
2 This is the statute of the Torah Because Satan and the nations of the world taunt Israel,
saying, “What is this commandment, and what purpose does it have?” Therefore,
the Torah uses the term “statute.” I have decreed it; You have no right to
challenge it.-[Yoma 67b]
and have them take for you It will always be called on your name; 'the cow which Moses
prepared in the desert.’-[Mid. Tanchuma Chukath 8, see Etz Yosef]
perfectly red Heb. אֲדֻמָּה תְּמִימָה , lit., red, perfect. It shall be perfect
in redness, so that two black hairs disqualify it.-[Sifrei Chukath 5]
3 Eleazar The mitzvah was performed by the deputy [to the kohen
gadol].-[Sifrei Chukath 8]
outside the camp Outside all three camps.-[Yoma 68a]
and slaughter it in his presence A non-kohen slaughters it while Eleazar watches.-[Yoma 42a]
4 toward the front of the Tent of
Meeting [In later generations, when
this rite will be performed outside the Temple in Jerusalem,] he is to stand to
the east of Jerusalem and to direct his gaze toward the entrance to the Temple
while sprinkling the blood.-[Sifrei Chukath 14]
7 enter the camp The camp of the Divine Presence, because no ritually unclean
person is banished from two camps, except one who experienced a flow, one who
experienced a seminal emission, or one afflicted with tzara’ath. [Hence, he is
admitted to the one camp from which he was banished.] -[Pes. 67a]
and the kohen shall be unclean until
evening Transpose it [the verse] and
explain it [thus]: He shall be unclean until evening, and then he may enter the
camp.
9 and place them outside the camp He divided it into three parts; one was put on the Mount of
Olives, one was divided among all the watches, and one who put on the rampart
surrounding the Temple area. The one given to the watches was outside the
courtyard, allowing access to it for the inhabitants of outlying cities,
whoever needed to purify himself. The one on the Mount of Olives was for the
kohanim gedolim to sanctify themselves from it for use with other [red] cows.
The one put on the rampart was kept as a keepsake by Scriptural ruling, as it
says, "It shall be as a keepsake for the congregation of Israel.-[Sifrei Chukath
30, Parah 3:11 Tosefta Parah 3:8]
for sprinkling water Heb. לְמֵי
נִדָּה , water used for sprinkling, as in, “they cast (וַיַּדּוּ) a stone at me” (Lam. 3:53); “to cast down
(לְיַדּוֹת) the horns of the nations” (Zech. 2:4); an
expression denoting throwing.
for purification - חַטָּאת , an expression of cleansing (חִטּוּי) , according to its simple meaning, but
according to its halachoth, Scripture calls it חַטָּאת , “sin-offering,” to tell us that it is
like holy objects, and using it for personal benefit is forbidden.-[Sifrei
Chukath 34]
12 He shall cleanse himself with it With these ashes. - [Sifrei Chukath 39]
13 corpse of a human soul Which type of corpse? That of a human soul, to exclude an
animal, that its uncleanness does not require sprinkling. Another explanation:
“Of a human soul” refers to a quarter [of a log] of blood [necessary for
maintaining life] -[Chul. 72a]
he has defiled the Mishkan of the
Lord If he enters the courtyard even
after [ritual] immersion, without having been sprinkled on both the third and
seventh days.-[Sifrei Chukath 45]
his uncleanness remains Although he [ritually] immersed himself. -[Sifrei Chukath 45]
14 anyone entering the tent while the corpse is inside.
15 any open vessel Scripture refers to an earthenware vessel, whose exterior does not
accept contamination, only its interior. Thus, if the seal around its top is
not securely fastened, it becomes contaminated. But if there is a securely
fastened seal, it remains clean. - [Sifrei Chukath 50, Chul. 25a]
fastened Heb. פָּתִיל , an expression meaning “fastened” in
Hebrew. Similarly, “[With] divine bonds נִפְתַּלְתּי , I have been joined, with my sister” (Gen.
30:8).
16 in an open field The Sages expounded [on this phrase] to include the top and side
of a coffin (Sifrei Chukath 56, Chul. 72a). But the simple meaning is that in
an open field, where there is no tent, a corpse contaminates through contact.
19 and he shall cleanse him This consummates his cleansing.
20 If a person becomes unclean... If “Sanctuary” is stated [here], why need it say “ Mishkan
...” [in verse 13]? The answer is that if it would say “ Mishkan,” I would say
that the person is punished with excision only if he enters the Mishkan in a
state of uncleanness because the Mishkan was anointed with the anointing oil,
but if he enters the Temple in a state of uncleanness, he would not be punished
since the Temple was not anointed with the anointing oil. If it would say,
“Sanctuary,” denoting the Temple, I would say that only for entering the Temple
in a state of uncleanness, would he be punished by excision because its
sanctity is permanent, but for entering the Mishkan in a state of uncleanness,
he would not be punished because its sanctity was temporary. Therefore, it was
necessary to mention both,]... as it is stated in [Tractate] Shevuoth [16b].
21 and the one who sprinkles the
sprinkling waters Our Rabbis said that the one
who sprinkles is actually ritually clean, but this teaches us that the one who
carries the purifying waters becomes defiled with a stringent uncleanness, for
even the clothes he is wearing are contaminated, unlike the one who merely
touches [the sprinkling waters]. Scripture uses the expression מַזֵּה , “the one who sprinkles” to teach that the
waters do not contaminate until there is an amount of water adequate for
sprinkling.-[Yoma 14a]
and the one who touches... shall be
unclean but he is not required to wash
his clothes.
22 Whatever the unclean one touches I.e., this unclean one who was defiled by a corpse
[touches], “becomes unclean.”
and anyone touching him, that is, the one defiled by a corpse-
shall be unclean until evening From here we derive that a corpse is the supreme source of
contamination, whereas one touching it is a primary source of contamination,
who can in turn defile another person [through contact]. This is the
explanation [of this passage] according to its literal meaning and the laws
associated with it. I have transcribed a homiletic interpretation from the
commentary of R. Moshe Hadarshan [the preacher], which is as follows: [2]
and have them take for you From their own [possessions]; just as they removed their own
golden earrings for the [golden] calf, so shall they bring this [cow] from
their own [possessions] in atonement.-[Midrash Aggadah]
a red cow This can be compared to the son of a maidservant who soiled the
king’s palace. They said, “Let his mother come and clean up the mess.”
Similarly, let the cow come and atone for the calf.-[Midrash Aggadah and
Tanchuma Chukath 8]
red Alluding to
[the verse], “if they [your sins] prove to be as red as crimson dye” (Isa.
1:18), for sin is described as [being] ‘red.’ -[Midrash Aggadah]
perfectly An allusion to the Israelites, who were perfect, but became
blemished. Let this come and atone for them so that they regain their
perfection.-[See Midrash Aggadah.]
and upon which no yoke was laid Just as they cast off from themselves the yoke of Heaven.-[Midrash
Aggadah] [3]
to Eleazar the kohen -just as they assembled against Aaron, who was a kohen, to
make the calf, but because Aaron made the calf, this service was not performed
through him, for the prosecution cannot serve as the defense.-[Midrash Aggadah]
[5]
The cow shall then be burned just as the calf was burned. -[Midrash Aggadah
a piece of cedar wood, hyssop, and of
crimson wool These three types [of objects]
correspond to the three thousand men who fell because of the [sin of the
golden] calf. The cedar is the highest of all trees, and the hyssop is the
lowest of them all. This symbolizes that the one of high standing who acts
haughtily and sins should lower himself like a hyssop and a worm [for the תּוֹלַעַת means
‘worm’ as well as ‘crimson.’ See Rashi on Isa. 1:18], and he will then gain
atonement. -[Midrash Aggadah] [9]
a keepsake Just as the transgression of the calf is preserved throughout the
generations for retribution, for there is no reckoning [punishment] which does
include a reckoning for the calf, as it says, “But on the day I make an
accounting [of sins upon them], I will bring their sin to account...” (Exod.
32:34). Just as the calf defiled all those who were involved in it, so does the
cow render unclean all those involved with it. And just as they were cleansed
through its ashes, as it says, “[he] scattered [the ashes of the burned calf]
upon the surface of the water” (ibid. 20), so [with the cow], “They shall take
for that unclean person from the ashes of the burnt purification offering...”
(verse 17). -[Midrash Aggadah]
Chapter 20
1 The entire congregation The complete congregation, for the ones destined to die in
the desert had already died and these were assigned for life.- [Midrash
Tanchuma Chukath 14]
Miriam died there Why is the passage relating Miriam’s death juxtaposed with the
passage of the Red Cow? To teach you that just as sacrifices bring atonement,
so the death of the righteous secure atonement.-[M.K. 28a].
Miriam died there She too died through a kiss [from God’s mouth rather than by
the angel of death]. Why does it not say “by God’s mouth” [as it does with
Moses]? Because it is not respectful to speak of the Most High in this way
(M.K. 28a). Concerning Aaron it does say “by God’s mouth” in [the portion
beginning] “These are the Journeys” (33:38).
2 had no water From here [we learn that] all forty years they had the well
in Miriam’s merit.-[Ta’anith 9a]
3 If only we had died We wish that we had died.-[Onkelos]
with the death of our brothers With the death of our brothers from plague. This teaches us that
death from thirst is more dreadful than it [death by plague].
with the death Heb. בִּגְוַע
אַחֵינוּ . This is a noun, like בְּמִיתַת אַחֵינוּ , with our brothers’ death [that is, in the
way they died]. But it is incorrect to explain it as meaning, ‘ when our
brothers died’ for in that case, Scripture would have punctuated it בִּגְוֽעַ .
8 and their livestock From here we learn that the Holy One, blessed is He, has
regard for the property of Israel.-[Midrash Tanchuma Chukath 9, Lev. Rabbah
10:9, Num. Rabbah 19:9]
10 assembled This is one of the places where we find that a small area held a
large number [of people].-[Midrash Tanchuma Chukath 9, Lev. Rabbah 10:9, Num.
Rabbah 19:9]
Shall we draw water... from this
rock? Since they did not recognize it, for
the rock had gone and settled among the other rocks when the well departed. The
Israelites said to them, “What difference is it to you from which rock you draw
water for us?” Therefore, he said to them, הַמּוֹרִים , obstinate ones; in Greek, ‘fools,’ those
who teach (מוֹרִים) their teachers. [He said,] “Can we draw
water from this rock regarding which we were not commanded?”-[Midrash Tanchuma
Chukath 9, Num. Rabbah 19:9]
11 twice Because the first time he drew out only a few drops, since God had
not commanded him to strike it, but, “you shall speak to the rock.” However,
they spoke to a different rock, and nothing came out. They said, “Perhaps we
ought to strike it first,” as it says, “and strike the rock” (Exod. 17:6). They
came upon that very rock and struck it.-[Midrash Tanchuma Chukath 9, Num.
Rabbah 19:9]
12 Since you did not have faith in
Me Scripture reveals that if it were not
for this sin alone, they would have entered the Land, so that it should not be
said of them, “The sin of Moses and Aaron was like the sin of the generation of
the desert against whom it was decreed that they should not enter [the Land].”
But was not [the question asked by Moses] “If sheep and cattle were slaughtered
for them...” (11:22) [a] more grievous [sin] than this? However, there he
[Moses] said it in private, so Scripture spares him [and refrains from
punishing him]. Here, on the other hand, it was said in the presence of all
Israel, so Scripture does not spare him because of the sanctification of the
Name.-[Tanchuma Chukath 10, Num. Rabbah 19:10]
to sanctify Me For had you spoken to the rock and it had given forth
[water], I would have been sanctified in the eyes of the congregation. They
would have said, "If this rock, which neither speaks nor hears, and does
not require sustenance, fulfills the word of the Omnipresent, how much more
should we! -[Midrash Aggadah]
therefore, you shall not bring Heb. לָכֵן , by an oath, as in, “Therefore (וְלָכֵן) , I have sworn to the house of Eli” (I
Sam. 3:14) [Tanchuma Va’era 2]. He hurried to take an oath so that they should
not engage in lengthy prayer concerning it [i.e. to repeal the decree].
13 These are the waters of dispute These are the ones mentioned elsewhere. Pharaoh’s
astrologers saw these [when they foresaw that] the savior of Israel would be
smitten through water, and that is why they decreed: "Every son who is
born you shall cast into the Nile.-[Sanh. 101b]
and He was sanctified through them For Moses and Aaron died because of them. When God judges
His holy ones, He is feared and sanctified by mankind. Similarly, it says, “You
are awesome, O God, because of Your holy ones” (Ps. 68:36). And likewise it
says, “I am sanctified by those close to Me” (Lev. 10:3) -[Zev. 115b]
Tehillim (Psalms) 103:10-14
|
Rashi |
Targum |
|
1. My
soul, bless the Lord. My God, You are very great, You are attired with
majesty and beauty. |
1. Bless, O my soul, the name of the
LORD. O LORD my God, You are greatly exalted; You have put on praise and
splendor. |
|
2. [You]
enwrap Yourself with light like a garment; [You] extend the heavens like a
curtain. |
2. Who wraps Himself in light like a sheet, who
stretches out the heavens like a curtain. |
|
3. Who
roofs His upper chambers with water; Who makes clouds His chariot, which goes
on the wings of the wind. |
3. Who covers His chambers with water like
a building with beams; who placed His chariot, as it were,
upon swift clouds; who goes on the wings of an eagle. |
|
4. He
makes winds His messengers, burning fire His ministers. |
4. Who made his messengers as swift
as wind; his servants, as strong as burning fire. |
|
5. He
founded the earth on its foundations that it not falter to eternity. |
5. Who lays the foundation of the earth upon
its base, so that it will not shake for ages upon ages. |
|
6. You
covered the deep as [with] a garment; the waters stand on the mountains. |
6. You
have covered over the abyss as with a garment; and the waters split on
the mountains, and endure. |
|
7. From
Your rebuke they fled; from the sound of Your thunder they hastened away. |
7. At
Your rebuke, they will flee, flowing down; at the sound of Your
shout, they will be frightened, pouring themselves out. |
|
8. They
ascended mountains, they descended into valleys to this place, which You had
founded for them. |
8. They
will go up from the abyss to the mountains, and descend
to the valleys, to this place that You founded for them. |
|
9. You
set a boundary that they should not cross, that they should not return to
cover the earth. |
9. You
have placed a boundary for the waves of the sea that they
will not cross, lest they return to cover the earth. |
|
10. He
sends the springs into the streams; they go between the mountains. |
10. Who
releases springs into rivers; they flow between the mountains. |
|
11. They
water every beast of the field; the wild donkeys quench their thirst. |
11. They
water all the wild animals; the asses will break their thirst. |
|
12. Beside
them the fowl of the heavens dwell; from between the branches they let out
their voices. |
12. The
birds of heaven will settle on them; they will give out a sound of
singing from among the branches. |
|
13. He
waters the mountains from His upper chambers; from the fruit of Your works
the earth is sated. |
13. Who waters
the mountains from his upper treasury; the earth will be
satisfied with the fruit of your deeds. |
|
14. He
causes grass to sprout for the animals and vegetation for the work of man, to
bring forth bread from the earth. |
14. Who makes
grass grow for beasts, and herbs for the cultivation of the son
of man, that bread may come forth from the earth; |
|
|
|
Rashi’s
Commentary to Psalm 104:10-14
12 Beside them the fowl
of the heavens dwell Beside the springs.
from between the
branches Heb. עפאים , the branches of the trees, and so (Dan. 4:11): “its branches
were (עפיה) beautiful.”
Meditation
from the Psalms
Psalms 103:10-14
By: H.Em. Rabbi Dr. Hillel ben
David
For the sake of continuity, I will repeat my opening
from last week.
In this psalm David thanks G-d for the greatest gift
He bestowed upon man, the soul. Without a soul man is merely a two-legged
creature competing against all other animals in the bitter struggle for
survival. With a soul, he becomes a reflection of the sacred heavens, a
semblance of the Divine.
The tragic irony of life is that people are often
oblivious to their own souls, unaware of the essence of their being and the
true purpose of their existence. All too often, this Divine fragment is
smothered by the flesh; this ray of eternal light is engulfed in darkness.
Modern psychology has yet to acknowledge what to every
believing Jew is a fundamental of daily life: humans have souls. This cannot be
proven empirically, because the soul is beyond the grasp of the microscope and
computer analysis. It is not physical, and therefore, it cannot be tracked or
traced. Belief in the soul is a matter of faith, and the only logical answer to
the mystery of life. It is the invisible source (battery pack, if you will) of
life that leaves as secretly as it comes.
The fundamental lesson of Judaism is to foster an
awareness of the Divine Soul and to teach man how to enhance and enrich this
most precious possession so that it will be worthy of standing in G-d’s
presence to praise Him. Thus, the Psalmist recites the refrain, repeated five
times in this psalm and the next,[1] Bless HaShem, O my soul![2]
Our section
of Psalms chapter 103 deals with sin and HaShem’s dealing with our sins.
Tehillim (Psalms) 103:10 He hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor requited us according to
our iniquities.
In this
paper, I would like to look at how sins were corrected in the Tanach.
Tikkun is
the Hebrew word for correction or repair. Thus, if a person sins and
damages the world, HaShem will send one of his descendants to correct the
problem. Megillat Ruth, at one level, is all about corrections. The sin of Adam
HaRishon must be corrected and ultimately the Mashiach will provide the tikkun
as He sums up Israel into one new man. To understand how this works will
require some understanding of the genealogy of the messianic line.
Terach had
three sons: Avraham, Haran, and Nachor. Our Patriarchs Avraham, Yitzchak, and
Yaaqov all married daughters of Haran. Ruth was also a grand-daughter of Haran.
Thus we see that from Avraham and his descendants we have the male side of the
messianic line that includes Lot, Judah,
Elimelech, Machlon, and Boaz, and from Haran and his descendants we have the
female side that included Lot’s daughters and Ruth. These are the patriarchs
and matriarch, the mothers and fathers of the royal Messianic line.
From the
male side we get the ideas that will shape the messianic line. From the female
side we get the binah, the
understanding as to how to apply these ideas from the male side. The spark of
the male is fanned into the flame of reality by the female side.
In the
evening meeting between Ruth and Boaz,[3] the story alludes to two similar situations, Lot’s
daughters,[4] and Tamar, Yehuda’s daughter-in-law.[5] The three situations have common features, most
notably, that there are women who have little prospect of having further
children who take actions to insure their own offspring. In both stories, a
mitzva[6] has the appearance of immorality. Additionally, each
of the cases has the death of two husbands.
Chazal[7] teach that the acts of the daughters of Lot were
intended to extract two good sparks, or portions. One is Ruth the Moabite and
the other is Naamah the Ammonite.[8] Clearly these two sparks are related to the
rectification of the two daughters of Lot who gave birth to the two peoples of
Moab and Amon. They erroneously thought that the entire world had been
destroyed, as in the time of the Flood, and that they had to retain the
existence of the human race. Their good intention, which is the good spark
within them, returned as the two converts, Ruth the Moabite and Naamah the
Ammonite. Mashiach, whose role is to bring the earth to its final
rectification, also descends from them.
It took ten
years in Moab for the family to disappear. It took less than a year in
Bethlehem for the ghostly remnants of the family to be rebuilt. A family of
four, father, mother, and two sons, left Bethlehem, and a family of four was
rebuilt in Bethlehem, Boaz, with Ruth and Naomi, acting as Obed’s mothers, and
Ruth acting as Naomi’s daughter. Thus we have a father, a mother, a son, and a
daughter.
The Tikkun of Yehudah and Tamar
Most folks
see the encounter between Tamar and Yehudah as a sin of immorality. Torah, on
the other hand, sees this encounter as a very great mitzva. It is a mitzva
because Tamar was a childless widow, and her dead husband’s family was
commanded[9] to raise up seed for the
deceased. The family was required to raise up seed for the deceased on
his land. When Yehudah failed to give his son, Shelah, to fulfill this mitzva,
Tamar enticed Yehudah himself to fulfill it. The Midrash records[10] that HaShem sent an angel to
“force” Yehudah, against his will, to turn in to Tamar’s tent. The angel asked
Yehudah, “If you fail to turn to Tamar; from where will the Kings come?” So,
Yehuda’s sin in not giving his son Shelah, the first in line for this mitzva,
was corrected when Boaz gave way to Ploni Almoni, for the same mitzva, because he
was first in line. This tikkun, this rectification, required enormous strength.
Yosef is
the lost son who returns to his family, and the place from which he was
dispossessed of his inheritance, Dotan Valley, is given later as an inheritance
to his descendants, the daughters of Tzelofchad.
“Our father
died in the desert... He died because of his own sin, and he had no
sons.” [Num. 27:3]
There they
resurrect their dead father’s name, and there they also resurrect the name of
Yosef, who had been exiled by brothers.
In the case
of Yehuda, Yoseph was made homeless and exiled from the land much as Elimelech
and Lot, albeit involuntarily. Yoseph is the lost son who returns to his
family, and the place from which he was dispossessed of his inheritance, Dothan
Valley, is given later as an inheritance to his descendants, the daughters of
Zelophehad. There they resurrect their dead father’s name, and there they also
resurrect the name of Yoseph, who had been exiled by brothers.
The most
prominent case of return to lost property appears in our Megillah, where the
acquisition of Ruth overlaps with the purchase of the field of Machlon.
Ruth 4:5 When you acquire the property
from Naomi and from Ruth the Moabite, you must also acquire the wife of the
deceased so as to perpetuate the name of the deceased.
Redemption
thus occurs when the name of the deceased is resurrected on his property.
Parallel to this, in Parashat Behar we find the term redemption used with
regard to the return of the freed slave to his property and the return of
family estates in the Jubilee year.
When a
slave, who sold himself to a foreigner and went out from amongst his nation, is
returned to his property, that is called redemption. The prophet Yechezkel[11] describes the redemption of the
nation of Israel in a similar manner. First, the nation will return to the land
of its inheritance. Immediately afterwards, HaShem purifies Israel:
Yehezechel (Ezekiel) 36:25 I will
sprinkle pure water on you and you will be pure.
Here, the
parallel to the red heifer is clear (and therefore these verses are known to us
from the Haftarah of Parashat Parah), purification from the impurity caused by
contact with the dead. After these verses comes the chapter on the dry bones,
“I will cause breath to enter you and you shall live”.[12] Thus, the
redemption of the nation of Israel begins as the redemption of the land, and on
the redeemed land the dry bones arise and live.
The land,
the inheritance, gives man his connection to eternity. The days of the land are
“like the days of the world”, as Rashi explains, and even though man’s days are
limited, his connection to the land gives him eternal life. When a person is
rooted in his property and passes it to his son and grandson, only then does he
taste immortality. Cain’s punishment for the murder is that “You shall become a
ceaseless wanderer on earth”.[13] In parallel, when the nation of
Israel is punished with exile, when it is evicted from the land of the living,
it turns temporarily into a “dead” nation until the redemption of the bones,
the resurrection of the dead on his property. The same rooting in the land is
described by the verse:
Yeshayahu (Isaiah) 65:22 For the
days of My people shall be as long as the days of a tree.
The tree
embodies eternal existence, as described in:
Iyov (Job) 14:7-9 There is hope for a tree; if
it is cut down it will renew itself ... at the scent of water it will bud.
Even after
the tree has dried out, it can still revive itself through its attachment to
the land. But the death of man, who is not attached to the land, is an eternal
death.
The Tikkun of Lot and His Eldest Daughter
Many folks
see the encounter between Lot and his eldest daughter [From the younger
descended Naamah the mother of Rehoboam[14] the first King of Judah.] as incest. The Torah,
however, records this encounter as a GREAT mitzva. The eldest daughter truly
believed that the only way to fulfill the mitzva of filling the earth, was
through her father. So, as repulsive as the act was, she endured it in order to
sanctify the name of HaShem. So great was the effort that she was rewarded with
offspring (Ruth) who were a part of the Messianic line.
When the
sun came up on the day HaShem was to destroy Sodom, the angels told Lot, “Get
up and take your wife and your two daughters who are found”.[15] Why did the Torah write, “who are found”? The verse
would be easy to understand without writing the phrase, “who are found”!
Rabbi
Yitzchak[16] says that this word is connected with the verse in:
Tehilim (Psalms 89:21 I have
found David my servant
This refers
to Mashiach. And where did HaShem find Mashiach? In Sodom!
But how
does Mashiach come from Sodom? Because from one of Lot’s daughters, came Ruth,
from whom came King David, from whom comes Mashiach. In fact, the reason Lot’s
daughters were saved was for the sake of King David and Mashiach.
The sin of
Lot’s eldest daughter was not incest. Her sin was in not consulting Lot so that
He could bring his wisdom to bear on this situation. This sin had its tikkun,
its rectification, on the threshing floor, when Ruth deferred to Boaz to tell
her what to do. She did this even though it resulted in great disappointment
and a potential loss of Boaz.
There is
another connection to this tikkun: Just as Lot abandoned the land of Israel and
went away from Avraham, so too did Elimelech. Lot left Avraham’s house for a
land that became known as part of Moab. Lot’s departure constituted not only a
geographic exit from Israel but also a cultural and religious exit, from the
Godly nation of Avraham to a foreign nation, from Avraham’s way of life, which
followed the path of God, a way of charity and justice, to its opposite, the
Sodomite way. According to Chazal, Lot declared: “I do not want Avraham and his
God”.
Elimelech
repeats the same act,[17] and there is no doubt that it has the same
significance; as Chazal say, “One who lives outside of Israel is like one who
has no God”. Elimelech’s sons marry non-Jewish women.[18] He becomes immersed in foreign culture, and,
essentially, he leaves Avraham and his God, attaching himself to the culture of
Moab. For this reason, his punishment is also great.
Lot in his
time was punished in a similar manner, his wife dies, his sons-in-law and
married daughters are destroyed, and he remains an old man with daughters who
cannot marry. Elimelech, too, leaves behind a wife who cannot bear children, and
two daughters-in-law whom no man in Israel will come forward to redeem.
In Megillat
Ruth there is a meeting between the House of Yehuda and the family of Lot. We
find a similar sin with a similar punishment with regard to Yehuda. Although
Yehuda did not leave the country and did not abandon his father’s culture, he
did force this fate onto his brother Yosef, causing him to leave his father’s
home and culture with the intent that he should become defiled by the culture
of a foreign nation. The punishment exacted of Yehuda is similar to that which
befalls both Lot and Elimelech. Immediately after selling Yosef, Yehuda
marries; his wife later dies, his two sons die, and in his opinion, his third
son cannot perform the act of yibum[19] (levirate marriage) with his daughter-in-law. He is
left without any assured continuity.
The tie
that binds these cases is that in all three stories there is almost a total
loss of family, but at the last minute a solution is found through the act of
yibum. With regard to Yehuda, the yibum is mentioned expressly in the text.
With regard to Lot, the matter is hinted at. Professor Benno Jacob points out a
linguistic anomaly in the statement of Lot’s daughters: “And there is not a man
on earth to consort with us”.[20] In Hebrew, the word “Aleinu” is unusual; usually the
word “eleinu” would be used in this context. The only other time that “Aleinu”
appears in a similar context is in the chapter on yibum: “Her husband’s brother
shall unite with her”[21]. In other words, this hints that yibum was at the
heart of Lot’s daughters’ attempts to revive their father’s seed and rebuild
the name of the family that perished.
In the
third case, that of Boaz and Ruth, there is no expression relating to yibum,
but the text does state, “So as to perpetuate the name of the deceased on his
estate”[22], similar to what is written in the parsha on yibum,
“... shall be accounted to his dead brother, that his name not be blotted out
in Israel“.[23] Yibum in all three cases is the solution to the
problem, but in all three cases, the yibum is irregular. We do not find here a
standard case of yibum between the brother of the deceased and the widow;
rather, we have a father (Lot) with his daughter, a father (Yehuda) with his
daughter-in-law, and the father’s brother (Boaz) with the father’s
daughter-in-law. These irregular, surprising acts of yibum are what return the
families to the land of the living.[24]
With Ruth,
a beautiful tapestry of tikkun, intricately woven across the centuries, is
revealed for all to see. Ruth “returns” to Eretz Yisrael and she “returns” to
the God of Avraham. She takes the disparate threads of her ancestors and
displays them as the tapestry of majesty! she rectifies the sin of Lot, in a
spectacular way, and carried Machlon back to the land to rectify the sin of
Elimelech. In Ruth and Boaz, the Kingly qualities of both Avraham and Yehudah
are reunited in a spectacular display of intricacy that only HaShem could have
done. Rightly has the story of Ruth been called “A Harvest of Majesty”!
But wait!
There is much more to this tikkun! Rabbi Moshe Alshich[25] suggests that Ruth is a gilgul[26] of Lot’s eldest daughter. When we compare Ruth and
Lot’s eldest daughter, we see that they share many common points.
Man’s
existence depends on passing his property to his sons or to those who come in
their place due to yibum. We have mentioned three stories: the first (Lot) is
the story of the birth of Moab. The second is the story of the birth of the
House of Yehuda. The third is the story of the meeting between the two, between
Ruth (Moab) and Boaz (Yehuda). The theme uniting the three is the resurrection
of the name of the dead on his property. This is redemption, and this is the
goal of the House of David, to reestablish the People of Israel on its land.
When all hope is gone, there is still the possibility of yibum, even in an
irregular, unnatural manner, which allows the name of the deceased to be
resurrected on his property. When this “irregular tapestry is turned over, we
can see that all of those odd threads have been perfectly placed by HaShem.
They have been perfectly woven into the tapestry of our redemption.
As we begin
comparing the events of Megillat Ruth with the story of Lot and His daughter,
along with the story of Yehuda and Tamar, we will begin to see how the
protagonists of Megillat Ruth will effect a tikkun, a rectification of the sins
of their ancestors. In Sefer Ruth, there is an emphasis on Ruth’s modesty and
Boaz’s self-control. Ruth, unlike Lot’s daughters, makes only a symbolic
advance to Boaz, who had been drinking of his own accord. Lot’s daughters, on
the other hand, get their father drunk and have relations with him. Boaz’s
self-control, in contrast to Yehuda’s impulsive behavior, allows him to follow
the proper procedure regarding the more rightful redeemer. Rabbi Sassoon[27] explained that the meeting between Ruth and Boaz is a
tikkun, rectification, of the previous two encounters. Ruth is the descendant
of the product of the first encounter (Lot and his eldest daughter), Moab, and
Boaz is a descendant of a product of the second encounter (Judah and Tamar),
Peretz. It is the correction of these earlier encounters that eventually leads
to the birth of the ruling dynasty in Israel, and ultimately to the Mashiach.
Ruth the
Moabite joins the tribe of Judah, through an act of kindness, and she becomes
the great-grandmother of David ben Yishai, the king of Israel. Predictably,
Sefer Shmuel summarizes his reign as follows:
2 Shmuel
(Samuel) 8:15 “And David reigned over all of Israel, and David
performed Torah law and Charity for his entire nation.”
Recall that
David had earlier hidden out in a CAVE (not unlike the cave when Lot
encountered his daughters) in the area of the Dead Sea (Ein Gedi), where he
performed an act of kindness by not injuring Shaul.[28]
The
Kingship of David constitutes the tikkun for the descendants of Lot. His
kingdom was characterized by the performance of tzedaka (charity) and mishpat
(Torah law), the antithesis of Sodom, Moab, and Ammon.
One of the
most important roles for Mashiach to fulfill, is this tikkun:
II Luqas
(Acts) 3:19-21 Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may
be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, And that he may
send Mashiach, who has been appointed for you--even Yeshua. He must remain in
heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long
ago through his holy prophets.
This
correction, this return to the faith and obedience of the Patriarchs is
forcefully proclaimed in the closing verses of Malachi:
Malachi
4:4-6 “Remember the law of my servant Moses, the decrees
and laws I gave him at Horeb for all Israel. “See, I will send you the prophet
Elijah before that great and dreadful day of HaShem comes. He will turn the
hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to
their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse.”
The father,
in this context, is one’s Torah teacher. The Son’s are the talmidim of the
teacher. This return to the fathers is nothing less than a return to the Torah
of Moses, as we can see from the context.
All of the
basic soul-roots from Adam on, become gilgulim[29] in order to continue to elevate their tikkun, their
rectification.
Is it
logical to expect that another gilgul of that soul will appear just before the
coming of Mashiach?
Why did
HaShem consistently look outside of the Jewish nation, when compiling the gene
pool for our Savior?
What was
Ruth doing in the field of Boaz? She was performing Leket,[30] gathering ears of corn. She gleaned and picked up.
Leket is a halachic and metaphysical institution, HaShem gleaned and gathered
beautiful inclinations and virtues from people all over the world in order to
weave the soul of the king Mashiach. HaShem was preoccupied with the Mashiach’s
personality. He disregarded race and religion and instead looked through all of
mankind to find special qualities and capabilities. This is the Almighty’s
approach to culture, to sift and glean through the nations of the world noting
outstanding moral traits and ethical accomplishments.
Ruth was
chosen because of her unique heroism. She came from pagan royalty, a life
intoxicated with orgiastic pleasures and unlimited luxury. Ruth sacrificed all
this to identify with a strange and mysterious people, to adopt a religion that
demanded superhuman discipline.
Why is
Ruth, who was alone, being compared to Rachel and Leah “the TWO of whom
together built the house of Israel”?[31] What did they mean by saying that Rachel and Leah
were two and that they were together and how does this relate to the current
situation? Why did they put it into the double context of Ephrath and
Bethlehem?
I think
that the intent is to call attention to Naomi, to the role that Naomi will play
together with Ruth. Throughout this book we have encountered the symbiotic
relationship between Ruth and Naomi. These two women function almost as one,
distinct in bodies but united in outlook, values and spirit. It is as if Ruth
is a proxy for Naomi for Naomi is not only a mentor but a partner in everything
that Ruth does. Naomi is Ruth and Ruth is Naomi and the two share
accomplishment and fulfillment. These two kindred spirits rectify the conflict
and lack of harmony between the two sisters, Rachel and Leah that ultimately
expressed itself in strife between the Kingdom of Israel, led by Ephraim who
stemmed from Rachel, and the Kingdom of Judah, descendant from Leah. This lack
of unity directly led to the long and bitter exile in which we still find ourselves.
The Bach[32] and Ben Ish Chai[33] both suggest that Ephrath is mentioned as an allusion
to Ephraim whereas Bethlehem is associated closely with the tribe of Judah.
Davidic monarchy is then a reflection and a re-enactment of the birth of the
nation. In this fashion the destiny of Ruth is tied not only to the past but
also to the future, separation is transformed into harmony and redemption
shines out upon the world.
There is a
question concerning another prominent woman in Tanach,[34] Rivka,[35] who orders Yaaqov to seize deceptively the blessings
intended for his brother. Convinced that Yaaqov deserved the blessings, by
virtue of both his character and the explicit prophecy she had received from
God, “the older will serve the younger”,[36] Rivka instructs Yaaqov to deceive his father and take
his brother’s blessing. In both instances, the women felt assured of their
scheme’s success, despite the considerable risk entailed. The Midrash[37] indeed draws a comparison between these two
incidents:
Mishlei (Proverbs) 29:25 A man’s
trembling becomes a trap for him.
This refers
to the trembling Yaaqov caused Yitzchak, as it says, ‘Yitzchak was seized with
very violent trembling.’ He should have cursed him, only ‘But he who trusts in
HaShem shall be safeguarded’, You placed [an idea] in his heart to bless him,
as it says, ‘Now he must remain blessed’. [This verse also refers to] the
trembling Ruth caused Boaz, as it says, ‘The man trembled and pulled back’. He
should have cursed her, only ‘But he who trusts in the Lord shall be safeguarded’,
You placed [an idea] in his heart that he would bless her, as it says, ‘You are
blessed to the Lord, my daughter’”.
It is
doubtful, however, whether this comparison between Naomi and Rivka could
justify what Naomi did. The commentaries have noted that Yaaqov’s deception was
the direct cause of his exile, not only practically, but also on the level of
reward and punishment. Many sources have also observed the clear parallel
between Lavan’s duplicity towards Yaaqov, particularly in substituting Rachel
with Leah, and Yaaqov’s seizing of Esav’s blessing. The Midrash comments:
Bereshit Rabba 70:19
“Throughout the night, he would call to her, ‘Rachel’, and she would respond.
In the morning, ‘Behold, she was Leah’. He said: You are a trickster, the
daughter of a trickster! She said to him: Is there a teacher without students?
Did your father not similarly call to you, ‘Esav’, and you responded? You, too,
called to me and I responded.”
This
Midrash clearly equates Yaaqov’s experiences with Lavan as a punishment measure
for measure for deceiving his father.[38]
In our
context, too, the Midrash[39] emphasizes the chillul HaShem[40] that could have resulted from Ruth’s visit to the
threshing floor:
“Rabbi
Chonya and Rabbi Yirmiya said in the name of Rav Shemuel bar Rav Yitzchak: That
entire night, Boaz was spread out on the floor crying, ‘Master of the worlds!
It is revealed and known to You that I did not touch her. May it be Your will
that it not be known that the woman came to the threshing floor, so that the
Name of HaShem not be desecrated through me!’”
We have
spent a bit of time exploring the tikkuns of Megilat Ruth. This will help us to
appreciate the consolation of our section of this chapter of psalms:
Tehillim (Psalms) 103:12 As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He
removed our transgressions from us.
Ashlamatah:
Shofetim (Judges) 11:1-11
|
Rashi |
Targum |
|
1. Now
Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valor, and he was the son of a
woman harlot, and Gilead begot Jephthah. |
1. And
Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty warrior, and he was the son of a harlot
woman. And Gilead begat Jephthah. |
|
2. And
Gilead's wife bore him sons; and his wife's sons grew up and drove Jephthah
out, and they said to him, "You shall not inherit in our father's house
for you are the son of another woman." |
2. And
the wife of Gilead bore to him sons, and the sons of the wife grew up and
drove out Jephthah. And they said to him: “You will not inherit in our
father's house, for you are the son of another woman.” |
|
3. And
Jephthah fled from his brothers and he dwelt in the land of Tob; and idle men
were gathered to Jephthah, and they went out with him.{P} |
3. And
Jephthah fled from before his brothers, and he dwelt in the land of Tob. And
idle men were gathered unto Jephthah, and they went forth with him. |
|
4. And
it was after many days, and the children of Ammon made war with Israel. |
4. And
at the time of days the sons of Ammon waged
battle? with Israel. |
|
5. And
it was, when the children of Ammon fought with Israel; and the elders of
Gilead went to take Jephthah from the land of Tob. |
5. And
when the sons of Ammon waged battle with Israel, the elders
of Gilead went to get Jephthah from the land of Tob. |
|
6. And
they said to Jephthah, "Come and become our chief, and we will fight
with the children of Ammon." |
6. And
they said to Jephthah: “Come, and be our leader, and we will wage
battle against the sons of Ammon.” |
|
7. And
Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, "Did you not hate me, and drive
me from my father's house? So why have you come to me now when you are in
distress?" |
7. And
Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead: “Did you not hate me and drive me out
from my father's house? And why have you come unto me now when you are in
distress?” |
|
8. And
the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, "Therefore we returned to you
now, and you shall go with us, and you will fight with the children of Ammon,
and you shall become our head, over all the inhabitants of Gilead." |
8. And
the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah: “Because now we have turned back unto
you, may you come with us and wage battle against the sons
of Ammon, and be our head for all the inhabitants of Gilead.” |
|
9. And
Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, "If you bring me back to fight
with the children of Ammon, and the Lord delivers them before me, I will
become your head." |
9. And
Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead: “If you bring me back to wage
battle against the sons of Ammon and the LORD will hand them over
before me, I will be your head.” |
|
10. And
the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, "The Lord shall hear between us,
if not according to your word so will we do." |
10. And
the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah: “The Memra of the LORD will be
a witness between us if we do not act thus according to your word.” |
|
11. And
Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people appointed him a head
and chief over them; and Jephthah spoke all his words before the Lord in
Mizpah. {P} |
11. And
Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people appointed him over
them for head and for the leader. And Jephthah arranged all
his words before the LORD in Mizpah. |
|
|
|
Special
Ashlamath: Malachi 3:4-24
(To
be read by the greatest Torah Scholar available to the local congregation.)
|
Rashi’s
Translation |
Targum |
|
4. And then the offerings of Judah and
Jerusalem shall be pleasant to the Lord, as in the days of old and former
years. |
4. And the offering of the people Judah and the
inhabitants of Jerusalem will be accepted before the Lord as in the days of
old and as in former years. |
|
5.
And I will approach you for judgment, and I will be a swift witness against
the sorcerers and against the adulterers and against those who swear falsely;
and also against those who withhold the wages of the day laborers, of the
widow and fatherless, and those who pervert [the rights of] the stranger,
[and those who] fear Me not, says the Lord of Hosts. |
5.
And I will reveal Myself against you to exercise judgement, and My Memra will
be for a swift witness among you, against the sorcerers and adulterers, and
against those who swear falsely and those who oppress the hireling in his
wages, the widow and the orphan, and who pervert the judgement of the
stranger, and have not feared from before Me, says the LORD of hosts. |
|
6.
For I, the Lord, have not changed; and you, the sons of Jacob, have not
reached the end. |
6.
For I the Lord have not changed my covenant which is from of old; but you, O
house of Israel, you think that if a man dies in this world his judgement has
ceased. |
|
7.
From the days of your fathers you have departed from My laws and have not
kept [them]. "Return to Me, and
I will return to you," said the Lord of Hosts, but you
said, "With what have we to return?" |
7.
From the days of your fathers you have wandered from My statutes and have not
observed (them). Return to My service and
I will return by My Memra to do good for you, says the LORD of
hosts. And if you say, 'How will we return?’ |
|
8.
Will a man rob God? Yet you rob Me, and you say, "With what have we
robbed You?"-With tithes and with the
terumah-levy. |
8.
Will a man provoke before a judge? But you are provoking before Me. And if
you say, 'How have we provoked before You? - in tithes and offerings! |
|
9.
You are cursed with a curse, but you rob Me, the whole nation! |
9.
You are cursed with a curse, and you are provoking before Me, the whole
nation of you. |
|
10.
Bring the whole of the tithes into the treasury so that there may be
nourishment in My House, and test Me now therewith, says the Lord of Hosts,
[to see] if I will not open for you the sluices of heaven and pour down for
you blessing until there be no room to suffice for it. |
10.
Bring the whole tithe to the storehouse and there will be provision for those
who serve in My Sanctuary. and make trial now before Me in this, says the
LORD of hosts, to see whether I will not open to you the windows of heaven
and send down blessing to you, until you say, 'Enough! |
|
11.
And I will rebuke the devourer for your sake, and he will not destroy the
fruits of your land; neither shall your vine cast its fruit before its time
in the field, says the Lord of Hosts. |
11.
And I will rebuke the destroyer for you and it will not destroy the fruit of
your ground; nor will the vine in the field fail to bear fruit for you, says
the LORD of hosts. |
|
12.
And then all the nations shall praise you, for you shall be a desirable land,
says the Lord of Hosts. |
12.
And all the Gentiles will praise you, for you will be dwelling in the land of
the house of My Shekinah and will be fulfilling My will in it, says the LORD of
hosts. |
|
13. "Still harder did your words strike
Me," says the Lord, but you say, "What have we spoken against
You?" |
13. Your words have been strong before Me, says
the LORD. And if you say, 'How have we multiplied words before you?' |
|
14.
You have said, "It is futile to serve God, and what profit do we get for
keeping His charge and for going about in anxious worry because of the Lord
of Hosts? " |
14.
You have said, 'He who serves before the LORD is not benefited, and what gain
do we earn for ourselves, because we have kept the charge of His Memra and
because we have walked in lowliness of spirit before the LORD of hosts? |
|
15.
And now we praise the bold transgressors. Yea, those who work wickedness are
built up. Yea, they tempt God, and they have, nevertheless, escaped. |
15.
And now we praise the wicked; yes, evil-doers are established. and, moreover,
they make trial before the LORD and are delivered. |
|
16.
Then the God-fearing men spoke to one another, and the Lord hearkened and
heard it. And a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who
feared the Lord and for those who valued His name highly. |
16.
Then those who feared the LORD spoke each with his companion, and the LORD
hearkened and it was revealed before him and was written in the book of
records before Him, for those who feared the LORD and for those who thought
to honour His name. |
|
17. And
they shall be Mine, says the Lord of Hosts, for that day when I make a treasure (Heb. S’gulah).
And I will have compassion on them as a man has compassion on his son who
serves him. |
17.
And they will be before me. says the LORD of hosts, on the day when I will
make up (My) special possession(Heb.
S’gulah), and I will have mercy upon them just as a man has mercy upon
his son who has served him. |
|
18. And you shall return and discern between
the righteous and the wicked, between him who serves God and him who has not
served Him. |
18. And you will again distinguish between the
righteous/generous and the wicked, between those who have served before the
LORD and those who have not served before Him. |
|
19.
For lo, the sun comes, glowing like a furnace, and all the audacious sinners
and all the perpetrators of wickedness will be stubble. And the sun that
comes shall burn them up so that it will leave them neither root nor branch,
says the Lord of Hosts. |
19.
For behold, the day has come, burning like an oven, and all the wicked and
all the evil-doers will be weak as stubble, and the day that is coming will
consume them, says the LORD of hosts, so that it will leave them neither son
nor grandson. |
|
20. And the sun of mercy shall rise with healing in its
wings (Heb. BiK’nafeiah) for you who fear My Name. Then will you go forth and
be fat as fatted calves. |
20. But for you who fear My name the sun of
righteousness will arise with healing in her wings (Heb. BiK’nafeiah), and
you will go out and sport like calves from the stall. |
|
21.
And you shall crush the wicked, for they will be as ash under the soles of
your feet on the day that I will prepare, says the Lord of Hosts. |
21.
And you will trample upon the wicked, for they will be ashes under the sole
of your feet on the day when I act, says the LORD of hosts. |
|
22. Keep in remembrance the teaching of Moses, My
servant-the laws and ordinances which I commanded him in Horeb for all
Israel. |
22. Remember the Law of Moses my servant, which I
commanded him on Horeb for all Israel, to teach them statutes and ordinances. |
|
23.
Lo, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and awesome day of the
Lord, |
23. Behold,
I am sending to you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day which
will come from the LORD. |
|
24.
that he may turn the heart of the fathers back through the children, and the
heart of the children back through their fathers - lest I come and smite the
earth with utter destruction. |
24.
And he will turn the heart of the fathers upon the children and the heart of
the children upon their fathers, lest I should reveal Myself and find the
whole land in its sins, and utterly wipe it out. |
|
|
|
Rashi’s Commentary for: Malachi 3:4-24
6 For I, the
Lord, have not changed Although I
keep back My anger for a long time, My mind has not changed from the way it was
originally, to love good and to hate evil.
and you, the sons of Jacob Although you die in your evil, and I have not requited the
wicked in their lifetime
you have not reached the end You are not finished from before Me, for I have left over
the souls to be requited in Gehinnom. And so did Jonathan render. And you of
the House of Jacob, who think that whoever dies in this world, his verdict has
already ended, that is to say, you think that My verdict has been nullified,
that he will no longer be punished. Our Sages (Sotah 9a), however, explained
it: א
שָׁנִיתִי - I did not strike
a nation and repeat a blow to it; but as for you, I have kept you up after much
punishment, and My arrows are ended, but you are not ended.
8 Will a man
rob Our Sages explained this as an
expression of robbery, and it is an Aramaism.
With tithes and with the terumah levy The tithes and the
terumah - levy that you steal from the priests and the Levites is tantamount to
robbing Me.
9 You are
cursed with a curse because of this iniquity, for which I send a curse
into the work of your hands; but nevertheless, you rob Me.
10 so that
there may be nourishment in My House There shall be food accessible
for My servants.
11 And I will
rebuke the devourer for your sake The finishing locusts and the
shearing locusts, which devour the grain of your field and your vines.
12 a
desirable land A land that I desire.
14 “It is
futile to serve God” We worship Him for nothing, for we will receive
no reward.
in anxious worry with low spirits.
15 And now we
praise the bold transgressors, etc. We worshipped Him and kept His
charge, but now we see that the wicked are prospering - to the extent that we
praise them for the wicked deeds.
Yea, they tempt God, saying, “Let us see what He will be able to do to us.”
and they have, nevertheless, escaped harm, and they have not stumbled.
16 Then the
God-fearing men spoke, etc. I retort upon your words then, when the
wicked commit evil and the good go about in anxious worry because of Me. The
God-fearing men spoke to one another not to adopt their evil deeds; and, as for
Me, their words are not forgotten to Me. And although I do not hasten to visit
retribution, I have hearkened and heard, and I have commanded that a book of
remembrance be written for them. Their words shall be preserved for Me.
17 for that
day when I make a treasure that I have stored and put away, with which
to pay My reward. There I will show you what the difference is between a
righteous man and a wicked man.
a treasure a treasure; estouj, estui in Old French.
19 For lo,
the sun comes This instance of יוֹם is an expression of
sun, for so did the Sages state that there will be no Gehinnom in the future,
but the Holy One, blessed be He, will take the sun out of its case; the wicked
will be punished thereby and the righteous will be healed thereby. That is the
meaning of what is stated (verse 20): “And the sun of mercy shall rise for you
who fear My Name, etc.”
neither root nor branch Neither son nor grandson
20 and be fat an
expression of fat, as in (Jer. 50: 11), “as you become fat, like a threshing
heifer.”
as fatted calves [the calves] that enter the team to be fattened; kopla,
cople in Old French: animals tied together.
21 And you
shall crush and you shall press. This is an expression of pressing,
similar to (Ezek. 23:8) “they pressed their virgin breasts.”
24 that he
may turn the heart of the fathers back to the Holy One, blessed be He.
through the children lit., on. He will say to the children affectionately and
appeasingly, “Go and speak to your fathers to adopt the ways of the
Omnipresent.” So we explain, “and the heart of the children through their
fathers.” This I heard in the name of Rabbi Menahem, but our Sages expounded
upon it in tractate Eduyoth (8:7), that he will come to make peace in the
world.
Verbal Tallies
By: H. Em. Rabbi Dr. Hillel ben David
& HH Giberet Dr. Elisheba bat
Sarah
Bamidbar (Numbers) 19:1 – 20:13
Tehillim (Psalms) 103:10-14
Shoftim (Judges) 11:1-11
Mk 10:35:41, Lk 12:49-53, Rm
10:1-21
The verbal tallies
between the Torah and the Psalm are:
LORD - יהוה, Strong’s number 03068.
Children / Son - בן, Strong’s number 01121.
The verbal tallies between the Torah and the
Ashlamata are:
LORD - יהוה, Strong’s number 03068.
Spake / Uttered / Speak - דבר, Strong’s number 01696.
Saying / Said - אמר, Strong’s number 0559.
Children / Son - בן, Strong’s number 01121.
Israel - ישראל, Strong’s number 03478.
Bring / Fetch - לקח, Strong’s number 03947.
Bamidbar (Numbers)
19:1 And the LORD <03068> spake <01696> (8762)
unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying <0559> (8800), 2 This is the ordinance of the law which the LORD <03068>
hath commanded, saying
<0559> (8800), Speak <01696> (8761) unto the children <01121>
of Israel <03478>,
that they bring
<03947> (8799) thee a red heifer without spot, wherein is no
blemish, and upon which never came yoke:
Tehillim (Psalms)
103:13 Like as a father pitieth
his children
<01121>, so the LORD <03068> pitieth them that fear him.
Shoftim (Judges)
11:1 Now Jephthah the
Gileadite was a mighty man of valour, and he was the son <01121> of an harlot: and
Gilead begat Jephthah.
Shoftim (Judges)
11:2 And Gilead’s wife bare
him sons <01121>;
and his wife’s sons <01121>
grew up, and they thrust out Jephthah, and said <0559> (8799) unto him, Thou shalt
not inherit in our father’s house; for thou art the son <01121> of a strange woman.
Shoftim (Judges)
11:4 And it came to pass in
process of time, that the children
<01121> of Ammon made war against Israel <03478>.
Shoftim (Judges)
11:5 And it was so, that when
the children
<01121> of Ammon made war against Israel <03478>, the elders of
Gilead went to fetch
<03947> (8800) Jephthah out of the land of Tob:
Shoftim (Judges)
11:9 And Jephthah said <0559> (8799) unto
the elders of Gilead, If ye bring me home again to fight against the children <01121>
of Ammon, and the LORD
<03068> deliver them before me, shall I be your head?
Shoftim (Judges)
11:11 Then Jephthah went with
the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and captain over them: and
Jephthah uttered
<01696> (8762) all his words before the LORD <03068> in
Mizpeh.
Hebrew:
|
Hebrew |
English |
Torah Reading Num. 19:1 – 20:13 |
Psalms 103:10-14 |
Ashlamatah Judges 11:1-11 |
|
ba' |
father |
Ps. 103:13 |
Jdg. 11:2 |
|
|
xa' |
brethren, brother |
Num. 19:3 |
Jdg. 11:3 |
|
|
rm;a' |
saying |
Num. 19:1 |
Jdg. 11:2 |
|
|
#r,a, |
land, earth, ground |
Num. 20:12 |
Ps. 103:11 |
Jdg. 11:3 |
|
aAB |
come, go, |
Num. 19:7 |
Jdg. 11:7 |
|
|
!Be |
son, children |
Num. 19:2 |
Ps. 103:13 |
Jdg. 11:1 |
|
rBeDI |
spoke, speak |
Num. 19:1 |
Jdg. 11:11 |
|
|
hw"hoy> |
LORD |
Num. 19:1 |
Ps. 103:13 |
Jdg. 11:9 |
|
~Ay |
days |
Num. 19:11 |
Jdg. 11:4 |
|
|
ac'y" |
take, bring, went out |
Num. 19:3 |
Jdg. 11:3 |
|
|
bv;y" |
stayed, dwell |
Num. 20:1 |
Jdg. 11:3 |
|
|
laer'f.yI |
Israel |
Num. 19:2 |
Jdg. 11:4 |
|
|
xq;l' |
take, bring, |
Num. 19:2 |
Jdg. 11:5 |
|
|
!t;n" |
give, gave, given |
Num. 19:3 |
Jdg. 11:9 |
|
|
~[; |
people |
Num. 20:1 |
Jdg. 11:11 |
|
|
rp'[' |
ashes, dust |
Num. 19:17 |
Ps. 103:14 |
|
|
hf'[' |
do, did, done, made, make |
Ps. 103:10 |
Jdg. 11:10 |
|
|
~ynIP' |
before, face |
Num. 19:3 |
Jdg. 11:3 |
|
|
[m;v' |
hear, heard |
Num. 20:10 |
Jdg. 11:10 |
Greek:
|
GREEK |
ENGLISH |
Torah Reading Num. 19:1 – 20:13 |
Psalms 103:10-14 |
Ashlamatah Judg. 11:1-11 |
Peshat Mishnah of Mark, 1-2 Peter, & Jude Mk 10:35:41 |
Tosefta of Luke Lk 12:49-53 |
Remes/Gemara of Acts/Romans and James Rm 10:1-21 |
|
ἀδελφός |
brethren, brother |
Num. 19:3 |
Jdg. 11:3 |
Rom. 10:1 |
|||
|
ἀκούω |
hear, heard |
Num. 20:10 |
Jdg. 11:10 |
Mk. 10:41 |
Rom. 10:14 |
||
|
ἀνάγω |
lead, led |
Num 20:4 |
Rom. 10:7 |
||||
|
ἄνθρωπος |
man, men |
Num 19:9 |
Rom. 10:5 |
||||
|
βαπτίζω |
baptized |
Mk. 10:38 |
Lk. 12:50 |
||||
|
βάπτισμα |
baptism |
Mk. 10:38 |
Lk. 12:50 |
||||
|
γῆ |
land, earth, ground |
Num. 20:12 |
Ps. 103:11 |
Jdg. 11:3 |
Lk. 12:49 |
Rom. 10:18 |
|
|
γινώσκω |
know, knows, knew |
Psa 103:14 |
Rom. 10:19 |
||||
|
διαστολή |
distinction |
Num 19:2 |
Rom. 10:12 |
||||
|
δίδωμι |
give |
Num 19:3 |
Mk. 10:37 |
Lk. 12:51 |
|||
|
δόξα |
glory |
Num 20:6 |
Mk. 10:37 |
||||
|
εἰρήνη |
peace |
Lk. 12:51 |
Rom. 10:15 |
||||
|
εἷς |
one |
Mk. 10:37 |
Lk. 12:52 |
||||
|
ἐμός |
mine |
Mk. 10:40 |
Rom. 10:1 |
||||
|
ἐξέρχομαι |
came forth |
Num 20:11 |
Rom. 10:18 |
||||
|
ἔπω |
said |
Num 20:10 |
Jdg 11:2 |
Mk. 10:36 |
Rom. 10:6 |
||
|
ἔρχομαι |
come, came |
Num 20:1 |
Jdg 11:7 |
Lk. 12:49 |
|||
|
ζάω |
living |
Num 19:17 |
Rom. 10:5 |
||||
|
ἡμέρα |
days |
Num. 19:11 |
Jdg. 11:4 |
Rom. 10:21 |
|||
|
θέλω / ἐθέλω |
want |
Mk. 10:35 |
Lk. 12:49 |
||||
|
κύριος |
LORD |
Num. 19:1 |
Ps. 103:13 |
Jdg. 11:9 |
Rom. 10:9 |
||
|
λαός |
people |
Num. 20:1 |
Jdg. 11:11 |
Rom. 10:21 |
|||
|
μέν |
indeed |
Mk. 10:39 |
Rom. 10:1 |
||||
|
νεκρός |
dead |
Num 19:16 |
Rom. 10:7 |
||||
|
νόμος |
law |
Num 19:2 |
Rom. 10:4 |
||||
|
ὁδός |
road, way |
||||||
|
συναγωγή |
houses, synagogue |
Num 19:18 |
Jdg 11:2 |
Lk. 12:52 |
|||
|
οὐρανός |
heavens |
Psa 103:11 |
Rom. 10:6 |
||||
|
παραγίνομαι |
come, came |
Num 20:5 |
Lk. 12:51 |
||||
|
πατήρ |
father |
Ps. 103:13 |
Jdg. 11:2 |
Lk. 12:53 |
|||
|
πίνω /
πίω |
drink |
Num 20:5 |
Mk. 10:38 |
||||
|
πιστεύω |
faithfully- obey |
Num 20:12 |
Rom. 10:4 |
||||
|
ποιέω |
do, did, done, made, make |
Ps. 103:10 |
Jdg. 11:10 |
Mk. 10:35 |
Rom. 10:5 |
||
|
πρῶτος |
first |
Num 20:1 |
Rom. 10:19 |
||||
|
πῶς |
how |
Lk. 12:50 |
Rom. 10:14 |
||||
|
ῥῆμα |
word |
Jdg 11:10 |
Rom. 10:8 |
||||
|
υἱός |
son, children |
Num. 19:2 |
Ps. 103:13 |
Jdg. 11:1 |
Mk. 10:35 |
Lk. 12:53 |
|
|
χείρ |
hands |
Num 20:11 |
Rom. 10:21 |
NOTE: If you want the Hebrew
and Greek characters to appear as they should please install into your computer
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Nazarean Talmud
Sidra of
B’midbar (Numbers) 19:1 – 20:13
“Zot Chuqat” “This
is the statute”
By: H. Em
Rabbi Dr. Eliyahu ben Abraham &
H. Em. Hakham Dr. Yosef ben Haggai
|
Hakham Shaul’s School of Tosefta - Luqas (Lk) |
of Hakham Tsefet’s School Peshat Mordechai (Mk) |
|
“I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish that it had
been kindled already! But I have an immersion to be immersed with, and I am
distressed until it is accomplished! Do you think that I have come to grant
peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! For from now on
there will be five in one household, divided three against two and two
against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against
father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against
her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.” (Micah
7:6) |
¶ And
Yaakov and Yochanan, the sons of Zavdeyel, approached Him (Yeshua), and
said, Rabbi (Hakham), we have a request that whatever we may request,
you would grant us. And he (Yeshua) asked them, what do you desire for
me to do for you? And they said to him, allow us (permit us the honor) that
we may sit one on the right hand of you and one on the left hand of
you in your seat of honor. But Yeshua said to them, you do not know what you
are asking for. Do you have the ability to drink from the cup, which I now
drink from, and to be immersed with the immersion that I am now immersed
with? And they said to him, we are able. However, Yeshua said to them,
certainly you will drink from my cup, and you will be immersed with the
immersion with which I am immersed. But to sit on my right hand or on my left
hand is not mine to give, but for whom it has been appointed. ¶And the other ten hearing, began to be indignant about at Yaakov and
Yochanan. |
Hakham Shaul’s School of Remes - Romans
¶ Brethren,
my heart’s desire and prayer for them[41]
is that they have their part in the Olam HaBa. I can testify on their behalf
that they are dedicated[42] to God,
nevertheless they are ill informed.[43]
Not being intimately acquainted with the righteous/generosity of God they tried
to stand on their own integrity (what they thought God would require of them) but in this, they did
not subject themselves to God's authority.[44]
For Messiah is the goal of the Torah exemplifying true righteous generosity to
all who will be faithfully obedient to the Torah.
¶As Moshe writes in Vayikra 18:5 'So you will keep (guard -shomer) My statutes and My
judgments, by which a man may live[45]
if he does them; I am the LORD. But the righteousness/generosity based on
faithful obedience speaks as follows: "For this commandment
which I command you today is not too difficult for you, nor is it out of reach.
It is not in heaven, that you should say, 'Who will go up to heaven for us to
get it for us and make us hear it, that we may observe it?' (that is to bring
Messiah down) "Nor is it beyond the abyss, that you should say, 'Who will
cross the abyss for us to get it for us and make us hear it, that we may
observe it?' (that is to bring Messiah up from the dead) "But the word (Logos/D'bar/Memra
= Torah) is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart,[46] that you
may observe it. This is the word (logos = Torah) of faithful obedience
we have been proclaiming (D'barim 30:11-14). If you agree (ὁμοῦ -)[47]
with the Oral Torah (- λογέω) of our Master Yeshua, knowing (with intimate knowledge) that God raised
him (Yeshua) from the dead you will have your part in the Olam HaBa. For
the person who faithfully teaches (ὁμοῦ - ) the justice of the Oral Torah (- λογέω) produces life in the Olam HaBa.[48] For the
Scripture says, “Therefore thus says the LORD God: Behold, I lay in Zion for a
foundation a stone, a tried stone, a costly corner-stone of sure foundation; he
that is faithfully obedient will not be disappointed” (Isa 28:16). For
there is no distinction between Jewish people of Judea and the Jewish people of
the diaspora; for the LORD is the same over all, abounding in riches (generosity) for all who call on Him; And
it will come about that whoever calls on the name of the LORD Will be
delivered; For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem There will be those who escape,
As the LORD has said, “Even among the survivors whom the LORD calls” (Yoel
2:32).
¶ How then will they call on Him to
whom they have not been faithfully obedient to? How will they be faithfully
obedient to Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a
preacher? How will they preach unless they are sent out? Just as it is written,
"How lovely on the mountains Are the feet of him who brings the Mesorah,
who announces peace and brings the Mesorah of happiness, who announces
salvation, and says to Tzion, "Your God reigns" (Isa 52:7). However,
they did not all heed the Mesorah; for Isaiah says, “Who has believed our
message? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?” (Isa. 65:1). So then faithful obedience
comes from repeatedly hearing and
recital of the Master's (Messiah’s) Mesorah.
¶ But I say, surely, they have never
heard, have they? Indeed, they have; "their voice has gone out into all
the earth, and their words to the ends of the world." But I say, surely
the Jewish people lost among the nations did not know, did they? First Moses
says, "They have made Me jealous with what is not God; They have provoked
Me to anger with their idols. So, I will make them jealous with those who are
not (considered as) a people; I will
provoke them to anger with a foolish nation" (Isa 65:2). And Isaiah
is very bold and says, "I permitted Myself to be sought by those who did
not ask for Me; I permitted Myself to be found by those who did not seek Me. I
said, 'Here am I, here am I,' To a nation which did not call on My name.” But
as for Israel He says, “I have spread out My hands all day long to a rebellious
people, Who walk in the way which is not good, following their own thoughts,” (Isa
29:10)
Nazarean
Codicil to be read in conjunction with the following Torah Seder
|
*Num 19.1 –
20.13 |
Ps 103:10-14 |
Judg. 11:1-11 |
Mordecai
10:35.41 |
1 Luqas
12.49-53 |
Romans
10.1-21 |
Commentary
to Hakham Tsefet’s School of Peshat
Mar 10:38 But Yeshua said to them, you do not know what you are asking (for). Do you have the ability to drink
from the cup, which I now drink, and to be immersed with the
immersion that I am now immersed with? Do you have the ability to
drink from the cup, which I drink?
Yeshua makes a direct
link to the ideas of, light, education and consecration. Can you drink of the
cup (of suffering)? Many people have desired to become a Torah Scholar when
they hear a Hakham teaching the Torah. However, they do not comprehend the
countless hours required for study, learning (education) and devotion to thresh
for kernels, which will be the bread upon which they feast. The Menorah was to
only be fueled by purest oil. This teaches us how dedicated we must be to truth
and Torah study. However, Yeshua is not simply alluding to this sort of pain.
The pain and suffering that Yeshua alludes to is the rebirth of the priesthood
of the firstborn. The Torah is permeated with connections to the understanding
of why the Kohanim were selected and what would happen in the future. See for
example the readings which help us understand the cleansing (immersion) of the
Kohanim in B’midbar chapter 8.
B’Midbar
8:21. The Levites cleansed themselves and washed their clothes. Then Aaron
lifted them as a waving before the Lord, and Aaron atoned for them to cleanse
them.
Do
you have the ability to … be immersed with the immersion
that I am now immersed with?
Rashi translates B’Midbar
8:21 in a very interesting way. “Then Aaron lifted them” alluding to the
Kohanim rather than the offerings offered. This satisfies the idea of a Korban,
which “brings near” the offeror. Therefore, the olah (burnt offering) elevates the offeror of those for whom the
offering is offered.
The “mikvah” is also an
elevation. Specifically, it is an elevation of status. Therefore, just as the
oil, being consumed in the Menorah brings light through the elevation of the
flame the olah elevates the Kohanim
and the Mikvah elevates the immersed.
On the other hand, why
did Hakham Tsefet, through his scribe Mordechai pen the words that we have?
|
B’Midbar 8:11. Then
Aaron shall lift up the Levites as a waving before the LORD on behalf of the
children of Israel, that they may serve in the Lord's service. |
B’Midbar 8:11. And
Aharon will present the Levites, (as) an elevation before the LORD from the
sons of Israel, and they will be for the work of the service of the LORD. |
Verses 11, 13 and 15 are
most unusual. They all contain the Hebrew word תְּנוּפָה, meaning wave or shake
indicating the waving towards the altar indicating a threefold dedication of
the Kohanim. Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch defines תְּנוּפָה as dedication,
designation and direction.[49]
This begs the question of
why the Kohanim had to be dedicated three times.
The threefold dedication
bespeaks method. The method of complete dedication requires a dedication by the
whole community and by G-d. Yisrael dedicated the Kohanim to G-d. G-d dedicated
the Kohanim to His service and Aaron dedicated the Kohanim to G-d and the
service of the Mishkan.
|
B’Midbar 8:7. This
is what you shall do to them so as to cleanse them: sprinkle them with
cleansing water and pass a razor over all their flesh; then they shall wash
their garments and cleanse themselves. |
B’Midbar 8:7. And
this will you do to purify them. Sprinkle upon them the water for uncleanness
through sin (chattata), and let the razor pass over all their flesh, and let
them wash their raiment, and wash themselves in forty seahs of water. |
Note the connection
between the Mikvah and the dedication of the Kohanim. The dedication ceremony
demands their death in a matter of speaking. Mikvah is a picture of death as
well as elevation. The elevation comes from death to a previous status of way
of life. The Kohanim were accustomed to a way of life that died when they were
dedicated to HaShem’s service.
Therefore, we could
reword Yeshua’s statement to read as follows.
Mar 10:38 Do you have the ability to suffer in the
manner in which I suffer, and to die to the life you now possess as I do?
Hakham Tsefet is most
astute. He notes that triple play on the word תְּנוּפָה in these Torah passages
and makes his own double play of triple word use.
Mar 10:38 But Yeshua said to them, you do not know
what you are asking (for). Do
you have the ability to drink from the cup, which I now drink
[from], and to be immersed with the immersion that I am now immersed
with?
Mar
10:39 And they said to him, we are able. However, Yeshua said to them,
certainly you will drink from my cup, and you will be immersed with
the immersion with which I am immersed?
Why
does Hakham Tsefet use the word “immerse” or “immersion” three times in two
verses? As noted above the Hebrew word תְּנוּפָה means dedication. We
have also noted that the idea of immersion is that of elevation. Consequently,
Hakham Tsefet uses the word immersion and the elevation of status in the same
way that the Torah Seder uses the idea of תְּנוּפָה. The threefold immersion
means complete and whole immersion in the study of Torah and pursuit of the
position of Hakham.
Commentary to
Hakham Shaul’s School of Remes
Textual
Analysis
This week’s pericope of
Romans is again an argument for the exile of souls into the Nations. Hakham
Shaul’s opening argument is for “them,” those souls that reside among the
Gentiles/Nations possessing the Nefesh Yehudi in Gentile vessels. He prays that
they will have their part in the Olam HaBa. He further testifies of the
dedication to G-d among them. But, he also notes that they have little true
“Da’at” intimate knowledge of G-d and the path they must walk to be subjected
to G-d. This is that path that every rebel hates, i.e. submission to the
Hakhamim/Rabbis. When this approach becomes the norm Yeshua is just another
Hippie from the 60’s and 70’s rebelling against the establishment. What a
pathetic view of our Master and Messiah!
We dispense with a lengthy
commentary and reserve our comments for our weekly discussion of the Nazarean
Codicil. We wish to only comment on one passage from our Remes materials.
Romans 10:4 For Messiah is the goal of the Torah exemplifying true
righteous generosity to all who will be faithfully obedient to the Torah.
The
Greek word τέλος
–telos means
goal. Therefore, we have translated this in the most appropriate way in saying
Messiah is the goal of the Torah. As it is written: “R. Hiyya b. Abba said in
R. Johanan's name: All the prophets prophesied [all the good things] only in
respect of the Messianic era” (TB Sanh 99a).
In
this vein, Yochanan (John) has most accurately depicted the Master as a
personification of the Torah. The Talmud teaches us that the whole cosmos was
created for Messiah.[50]
Likewise, we are taught that the first, chief and principal thought of G-d when
He initiated creation was Messiah. When the most Mysterious (concealed of the
concealed, the most hidden recesses of divinity) wished to reveal Himself, He
first produced a single point of light (Hokhmah) which was emanated into
a creative thought, and in (from) this He executed innumerable designs.
Thus, creation began with Messiah. This means that “B'resheet Bara” teaches
that Messiah was the first thought (Hokhmah) that HaShem had when he
intended to create the cosmos. Furthermore, it is said that G-d first
produced a single point of light (Hokhmah) that single point was the
thought of Messiah, by which He created the whole cosmos.
Thus,
the “goal” that G-d intended for creation lay in Messiah and his
personification of the Torah. When we have learned the Torah of Messiah, i.e.
the Mesorah as handed down by the Sages and elucidated by the Hakhamim we will
begin to bring into focus the true persona of Messiah, which we are to emulate.
Hakham Shaul makes his first use of the Greek
word “nomos” in Romans 2:12. Therefore, we need to discuss the implications of
Hakham Shaul’s use of the word and its meaning. Without elaborating at length,
the true meaning of “nomos” from a lexical perspective, “nomos” is defined as
the equivalent to the Hebrew word “Torah.” The translators of the Septuagint
(LXX) when translating the Torah (specifically the five books of Torah)
translated the Hebrew word Torah as “nomos” 200 out of the 220 times that it is
found in the Pentateuch.[51]
Hakham Shaul uses “nomos” in a number of ways in his Igeret to the Romans.
However, what we must understand and bear in the forefront of our minds is that
Hakham Shaul used the Greek word like the translators of the LXX. Therefore,
Hakham Shaul’s “nomos” is Torah essentially.
Bruce points out that Hakham Shaul uses “nomos”
in four ways.
Missing from Bruce’s explanations are other
meanings of the Hebrew word “Torah.” For example, Torah also means…
We cannot read this list as being exhaustive. The
concept of “Torah” is by far more far reaching that any simple definition.
The complexity of Hakham Shaul’s use of “nomos”
relates to the allegorical meanings associated with the Torah. In his Igeret
(letter) to the Romans Hakham Shaul is dealing with practical situations[53]
and therefore the Nazarean Codicil and the present Igeret is the record of
Nazarean halakhah. However, Hakham Shaul is showing us that the Nomos/Torah is
so cosmic that G-d judges the Gentiles, who are without excuse according to the
cosmic truth of the Torah.
Therefore, we must deduce that the Oral
Torah/Nomos is the fabric of the cosmos. Consequently, we inhabit a nomos - a
normative universe. We constantly create and maintain a world of right and
wrong, of lawful and unlawful, of valid and void.[54] We
must further understand that the cosmos of dialogical narrative and rhetoric.
Thus, we will see the cosmos as a “nomos narrative.” Some have referred to this
as a sacred canopy.[55]
The “normative” universe is held together by the
power (force authority) of its interpretative agents known as Sages/Hakhamim
(men of wisdom) in relation to the nomos/Torah of the cosmos. Through the
interpretive hermeneutics of the Sages, we enter the domain world of
Torah observance. The Torah in and of itself is a nomos narrative. While it
contains 613 mitzvoth, it reveals them only through narrative rhetoric.
Consequently, the pattern of Law (nomos) and “Law giving” is given primarily in
rhetoric and narrative.
This brings us to the age-old question of why the
Torah begins with B’resheet (Gen.) 1:1 instead of Shemot (Ex.) 12:2. The
general deduction is that G-d wanted to show Himself as the creator and
therefore just in giving Eretz Yisrael to the Jewish people rather than the
nations.[56]
Allegorically, G-d wants to reveal to us that the cosmos is a Divine nomos
narrative, the Divine story of His eternal benevolence. Furthermore, we can
derive from the written Torah a pattern of nomos rhetoric. The nomos narrative
is a halakhic “story” being told through the medium of time. We must also note
that G-d gave us the “613 mitzvoth” through the medium of a specific nomos
narrative (“I G-d brought you out of Egypt”). The narrative established grounds
for G-d’s mitzvoth and halakhah. Therefore, the covenantal nomos is given in legal
rhetoric because this is the true essence of the cosmos. It is for this reason
that scientists refer to principles of the cosmos as the “laws of nature” i.e. nomos
phuseos, lex naturalis.
What is important for us to derive from this is that G-d’s law (nomos/Torah) is
always couched in narrative form it cannot be wrenched from this rhetorical
medium. Likewise, when we read nearly all legal documents they are joined to a
narrative rhetoric. All courts of law depend on narrative and rhetoric as a
means of legal decision-making.[57]
Therefore, we cannot separate law/nomos/Torah from narrative form.
On another level, the Torah naturally equates
itself to a cosmic nomos narrative. In other words, the Torah depicts the
cosmos as a nomos narrative showing G-d’s cosmic authority. B’resheet (Genesis)
shows the origins of the Cosmos through G-d’s verbal command – nomos. These
verbal commands form a nomos narrative and history of the chief events of
creation. As we further read in B’resheet, we see the narrative of nomos unfold
in a very logical way. The Order of the Torah narrative is for the sake of
understanding among other things, the communal interaction of humankind.
Therefore, halakhah, mitzvoth as a nomos narrative teach humankind how to
interact socially.
Nazarean Codicil
This pattern helps us to have a better
understanding of the narrative structure of the Nazarean Codicil as a “nomos
narrative.” By presenting the nomos in a narrative, we can now approach the
Nazarean Codicil as nomos rhetoric. Furthermore, we can now see how Hakham
Shaul can present a nomos narrative in Igeret (letter) form to both Jews and
Gentiles in Rome. The Romans, Jewish and Gentile congregation would easily note
that the Igeret was a legal document with numerous legal norms. The idea of a cosmos as “nomos narrative”
would have been apparent to a Greco-Roman audience.[58]
The Nazarean Codicil naturally falls into Six
Orders.
While these patterns need further research, and
possible redefinition we can see that they fall in to specific narrative
categories. In this manner, we see that the patterns are very similar to the
way that the Oral Torah is divided. However, the Nazarean Codicil mirrors the
“nomos narrative” of the Tanakh much more closely. Yet, the way that the
Nazarean Codicil mirrors its Biblical Narrative in its Torah Seder is closer to
Midrashic and So’odic narratives of the Oral Torah.
Like the “nomos narrative” of the Torah, the Nazarean
Codicil projects its rhetoric in communal judgments and declarations. These
judgments and declarations establish nomos - laws for social interaction and
discourse. Thus we can see that Hakham Shaul sends an Igeret to the Romans
outlining the “nomos” – law for Gentiles who are “turning towards G-d.”[59]
Note the legal vocabulary of the initial part of Hakham Shaul’s address.
Through him (Messiah), I have received chesed[60]
and an Igeret
Reshut[61] to
bring Messiah’s authority[62]
over all the Gentiles turning to God,[63]
Of course, this brings in a new factor of Messiah
and Nomos/Torah/Law, which is a critical element to the “Nomos Narrative.” From
this, we drive the idea that the nomos narrative has a teleology in mind. The
nomos narrative of the Torah and Nazarean Codicil both project a very specific
teleology as a goal to be achieved on a cosmic level. The Nomian teleology is a
legal description of the times we will experience such as the Y’mot HaMashiach
and the Olam HaBa wherein the communities therein will live by the teleology of
the nomos narrative we seek to express at present. Therefore, the nomos
narrative of the cosmos (Oral Torah) is the “Nomos of Tikun” in this we
understand “Tikun” to mean rectification or more properly “return.” Therefore,
the cosmic “nomos narrative” outlines the path between the Olam HaZeh and the
Olam HaBa.
From the Nazarean Codicil and its “order” in
hermeneutic headings we come to understand the nomos narrative of the cosmos to
be defined through exegetical hermeneutic exercises mastered by the Hakhamim.
It is for this reason that we must have Hakhamim (Torah Scholars) to interpret
the overarching nomos narrative of the Oral Torah a “Higher Law: Living Nomos.”[64]
The Order and Pattern of the Oral Torah
and its Narrative
s we have seen above, the Nazarean Codicil
follows a specific pattern in its re-narration of the Oral and Written Torah (Nomos).
Fraade outlines the Oral Torah in the following words.
The pattern that we saw in second temple Jewish literature-of
reconstituting biblical laws by extracting them from their biblical narrative
contexts so as to topically gather and rearrange them-is carried very much
further in the Mishnah (commonly attributed to R. Judah the Patriarch of the
early third century), than in any of its antecedents. There, biblical and
post-biblical laws are combined and organized according to topical,
non-biblical rubrics: six orders, divided into sixty-three tractates,
subdivided into 523 chapters, into which individual Mishnaic rulings are
arranged. But to conceive of this simply as an ideologically innocent editorial
reordering would be a gross simplification, since the Mishnah fundamentally transforms
received laws according to its own Mishnaic language, oral syntax, and dialogical
rhetoric.[65]
Samely presents a more exhaustive investigation
of “Rabbinic Interpretation of Scripture in the Mishnah.”[66]
Nevertheless, we see that Torah/Nomos is never divorced from a narrative form.
The Oral Torah, a higher “living Torah,” like the Nazarean Codicil categorizes
its narrative into specific genre for the sake of specifics.
When the Sages of the second Temple period
reconstituted “biblical law,” they understood that nomos rhetoric could not be
divorced from that form. Writers like Josephus and Philo were aware of the same
truth. Josephus gives a very vague view of the mitzvoth and the halakhah. Philo
looks at the mitzvoth and halakhot in very much the same way that the Talmud
does. Likewise, Philo sees the nomos as a cosmic narrative. As such, Philo show
us the application of re-narration of nomos in allegorical form. Consequently,
we should be able to see some sorts of parallel between Hakham Shaul and Philo.
Hakham Shaul’s allegorical Igeret to the Romans viewed the Gentiles in a
negative light. Philo has almost the exact same view.
Abraham
135 As men, being unable to bear discreetly a
satiety of these things, get restive like cattle, and become stiff-necked, and discard the laws of nature,
(τῆς
φύσεως νόμον)
pursuing a great and intemperate indulgence of gluttony, and drinking, and
unlawful (ἐκθέσμους)
connections; for not only did they go mad after women, and defile the marriage
bed of others, but also those who were men lusted after one another, doing
unseemly things, and not regarding or respecting their common nature, and
though eager for children, they were convicted by having only an abortive
offspring; but the conviction produced no advantage, since they were overcome
by violent desire; (136) and so, by degrees, the men became accustomed to be
treated like women, and in this way engendered among themselves the disease of
females, and intolerable evil; for they not only, as to effeminacy and
delicacy, became like women in their persons, but they made also their souls
most ignoble, corrupting in this way the whole race of man, as far as depended
on them. At all events, if the Greeks and barbarians were to have agreed
together, and to have adopted the commerce of the citizens of this city, their
cities one after another would have become desolate, as if they had been
emptied by a pestilence.[67]
Fraade sums Philo’s nomos narrative as follows.
Philo's extraction and reordering of the biblical
laws serves much more than simply a need to render them more accessible or
applicable. Through his allegorizing interpretations of the laws, Philo
effectively removes them from the "horizontal" narrative of biblical
history and repositions them within an overarching "vertical"
narrative of the individual soul's perfection and ultimate ascension to reunion
with its divine, heavenly source, which similarly pervades his allegorical
interpretations of the biblical narratives and personalities.[68]
Implicit in Philo’s writing and in conjunction
with Hakham Shaul is the idea that the nomos is comic. Furthermore, Philo shows
us exactly why Hakham Shaul uses Abraham as the model for his interaction with
the Gentiles.
Abraham
1:276 Such is the life of the first author and
founder of our nation (Abraham); a man according to the law, as some
persons think, but, as my argument has shown, one who is himself the unwritten
law (Torah/Nomos) and justice of God. [69]
The Greek sentence actually sees Abraham as a νόμιμος
βίος (Nomimos Bios = Living Torah) αὐτὸς ὢν
καὶ θεσμὸς ἄγραφος (who is himself the unwritten law).[70]
Hakham Shaul’s words in the present pericope now become evident. As such, Abraham became a “living Torah/Nomimos
Bios” of the unwritten law i.e. the Oral Torah or Torah of the cosmos. Here we
find some similarities in the So’odic narrative of Yochanan 1:14 and the logos
(nomos) became “flesh” i.e. a living Torah. Therefore, Abraham’s descendants[71]
are required to keep the Oral Torah, the higher, “living Torah.”
Did Abraham know the Oral Torah or the Written
Torah? During the time of Abraham, the Torah was only in Oral form. In chapter
four of the Igeret to the Romans, Hakham Shaul will bring Abraham to make a
point concerning his halakhic norms. Yet, here we see that Abraham is a
prototype for Gentiles to follow. Hakham Shaul shows that the Gentiles have the
Oral Torah, cosmic nomos narrative in their conscience. As such they are guilty
of violating the Oral Torah when they “sin.”
From Abraham we learn
B’resheet
(Gen) 14:18-19 And Melchizedek king of Salem
brought out bread and wine; now he was a priest of God Most High. He blessed
him and said, "Blessed be Abram of God Most High, Creator of the heavens
and earth.”
Allegorically this passage tells us that Abraham attended
the Yeshiva of Shem (Melchizedek) and completed his studies there. How so?
Bread can be seen as an allegory for halakhah and wine is the haggadic portions
of the Oral Torah. How can we determine that he completed these courses?
Melchizedek king of Salem, “shalam” is that which is completed and
whole.
We hope that we have learned from this lesson
that the Torah/nomos is a living Torah, personified in Messiah. However,
Messiah is typical of those like Abraham who made their lives a living Torah
learned and discerned from the Torah/nomos of the Cosmos, i.e. the Oral Torah
that serves to instruct humankind in the path that G-d as the creator has laid
out for humankind. Hakham Shaul’s appeal to the conscience of the Gentile is an
allusion to the truth that the Oral Torah is cosmic in nature and therefore the
Oral Torah and their faithfulness judge all men therein. The “lawless” are in
fact those who do not exercise self-control and are guilty and punishable for
crimes against the Torah.
The Torah must be given in a narrative form. The
narrative form is faithfully followed in the Tanakh. The Nazarean Codicil
closely mimics the pattern of the written and Oral Torah. The Nazarean Codicil;
re-narrates the Torah in Messianic, halakhic form. The Oral Torah now in
written volumes follows a very similar approach to halakhic/nomos of the
Nazarean Codicil.
Questions for Reflection
1. From all the readings for this
week, which verse or verses touched your heart and fired your imagination?
2. In your opinion what is the prophetic statement for this week?
Blessing
After Torah Study
Barúch Atáh Adonai, Elohénu Meléch
HaOlám,
Ashér Natán Lánu Torát Emét,
V'Chayéi Olám Natá B'Tochénu.
Barúch Atáh Adonái, Notén HaToráh.
Amen!
Blessed is Ha-Shem our God, King
of the universe,
Who has given us a teaching of
truth, implanting within us eternal life.
Blessed is Ha-Shem, Giver of the
Torah. Amen!
“Now unto Him who is able to preserve you faultless, and spotless,
and to establish you without a blemish, before His majesty, with joy, [namely,]
the only one God, our Deliverer, by means of Yeshua the Messiah our Master, be
praise, and dominion, and honor, and majesty, both now and in all ages. Amen!”
Next Shabbat:
Shabbat Pesach – First Passover Sabbath
Note: With the beginning of the
month of Nisan, and with the reading of Shabbat “HaGadol”, at this time we make
our last request for our collection for the work of HaShem, most blessed be He.
The entire collection will be devoted to finance this work and resources
needed, before we sit at our tables to celebrate Pesach. Your donations are
much appreciated and should be sent via PayPal to: ravybh@bigpond.com . Many thanks for your generosity!
=============================================================================================
Coming Festival:
Pesach
- Passover
Friday Evening the 30th of
March – Saturday Evening 7th of April, 2018
For further information
see:
http://www.betemunah.org/chametz.html ; http://www.betemunah.org/passover.html ;
http://www.betemunah.org/redemption.html ; http://www.betemunah.org/haggada.html
============================================================================================
Hakham
Dr. Yosef ben Haggai
Rabbi
Dr. Hillel ben David
Rabbi Dr. Eliyahu ben
Abraham
Sephardi Kosher Le
Pesach List for Passover 2018
Baking Soda — OU- and Star-K-certified baking soda is permissible without special Kosher LePesach certification.
Cocoa Powder — Hershey’s OU-certified, regular (not special dark) cocoa powder does not need a special Pesach hechsher. (Star-K says that all domestically produced cocoa can be used. Consult your rabbi if you have questions.)
Coconut Oil —Unfortunately
since 2016, the OU has said that coconut oil now requires a KLP
hechsher. According to Spectrum, the OU-P version will be on the Organic
Unrefined 14 oz. jar only, and it’s apparently already been released to stores.
Coffee — Unflavored, ground coffee that has a hechsher year-round is acceptable for Passover without special certification. In addition:
· K-cups, Vue cupss, Bolt packs and Single Serve Coffee that is unflavored and not decaffeinated is also acceptable when bearing and OU symbol.
· Folger’s and Nescafe Taster’s Choice Instant coffee are acceptable without special Passover certification.
· Folger’s Decaffeinated Instant coffee is also acceptable without special certification.
· All other brands, types and flavors require special certification.
Eggs — Whole and raw eggs, including pasteurized eggs, do not require a KLP hechsher. Eggs should be purchased before YomTov begins.
Frozen Fruit — Frozen, unsweetened, additive-free (without syrup, citric acid, ascorbic acid, or vitamin C), whole, sliced or formed fruit may be used without any certification, KLP or otherwise. However, fruit that may be infested (e.g., strawberries) may only be used year-round, including on Pesach, when bearing an approved symbol. No additional Passover symbol is required for frozen fruit on Pesach.
Juice Concentrate — OU-supervised unsweetened orange and white grapefruit juice concentrate may be used without special Passover certification. No additives or enrichments (eg. calcium) may be present. Bottled juices, on the other hand, require a KLP hechsher.
Lemon & Lime Juice — {New in 2016} ReaLemon and ReaLime Juice (reconstituted) certified regularly by the OU is acceptable without a special KLP hechsher.
Meat & Poultry — Kosher-certified meat and poultry (fresh or frozen) in its original manufacturer packaging are inherently chametz-free year-round, and should not require any additional special supervision for Passover. This does not apply to ground meat and poultry, which may have additives. Meat and poultry should be purchased before YomTov begins.
Milk — Milk does not require a special KLP hechsher (nor a regular hechsher year-round). However, since milk contains added vitamins, which have a slight chametz risk, it is recommended to purchase your milk before Pesach.
Nuts — Raw whole, pieces or chopped nuts or nutmeal, with no preservatives or additives such as BHT or BHA, do not require a special KLP certification. Whole and half pecans also do not require KLP certification, but pieces do, per the Star-K. Peanuts are considered kitniyot by many.
Olive Oil — All extra virgin olive oils are Kosher for Passover, as long as they have a regular OU hechsher. Regular olive oil does require a KLP certification.
Quinoa —There is a possibility that it will be processed in a plant that has chametz in it. Therefore, only the Ancient Harvest brand, grown in Peru and certified by the Star-K year-round, does not require additional special KLP certification. This includes the Inca Red Grains Quinoa, Tricolor Grains Harmony Blend Qyinoa, White Grains Traditional Quinoa and the White Quinoa 50lb Bulk Bag. The OU Guide this year, however, says that all quinoa requires KLP certification. If you have questions, consult your local rabbi.
Raisins — OU- and Star-K-certified raisins are kosher year round, including on Passover, without special KLP certification as long as they do not contain “oil” in their ingredients.
Salmon — OU-certified Kirkland-brand Frozen Atlantic and Frozen Wild Salmon are acceptable with an OU, but no special KLP certification, after rinsing with water.
Salt — Non-iodized salt does not require special Passover certification, nor does sea salt. Regular, iodinized table salt does require KLP certification.
Sugar — All white, granulated sugar is acceptable for Passover without special certification. Powdered sugar and brown sugar, on the other hand, do require a Passover hechsher. (During the rest of the year, brown sugar and powdered sugar — like white sugar — can be purchased without a hechsher.)
Tea Bags — Unflavored and not decaffeinated black, white and green regular tea bags that are regularly certified by the OU are acceptable for Pesach without special supervision.
Water — All unflavored bottled water is Kosher for Passover, even without any Kosher supervision.
Looking for
· Aluminum foil
· Aluminum foil baking pans
· Baby ointment
· Bags — paper or plastic
· Body wash
· Candles
· Carpet cleaners
· Charcoal
· Conditioner
· Copper or metal cleaner
· Cosmetics (except lipsticks/lipbalm, see below)
· Cupcake holders
· Cups (paper, plastic or styrofoam)
· Deodorant
· Detergent
· Dishwashing Detergent
· Drain openers
· Furniture polish
· Glass cleaner
· Hair gels, sprays and mousse
· Hair removers and treatments
· Isopropyl alcohol
· Jewelry polish
· Laundry detergent
· Lotion
· Napkins (paper)
· Oven cleaner
· Paper towels
· Perfume
· Plastic containers
· Plates (paper, plastic or styrofoam)
· Scouring pads and powders
· Shampoo
· Shaving cream and gel
· Shaving lotion
· Silver polish
· Skin cream
· Soaps
· Suntan lotion
· Talcum powder (100% talc)
· Toilet bowl cleaner
· Tub cleaner
· Water filters
Rice: The staple of the Sephardic Passover diet is Rice. It is the #1 question. Which rice is good? Most supermarket brands of rice are enriched. The enrichment is diluted with starch in order to distribute it evenly on the rice. This can be a corn, rice or a wheat starch base. Unlike for the past 25 years, we no longer have access to the detailed information about the enrichment processing ingredients, and therefore, we do not recommend enriched rice.
White Rice: Any unenriched or organic rice is acceptable.
· Star-SP has made a special run of certified unenriched Mehadrin Carolina and Mehadrin Goya Rice. It is not pre checked. Please check three times according to our custom!
· Super Lucky Elephant brand (Star K) available at Costco and Walmart
· Golden Elephant Brand, sold on Ave. U is not enriched.
· Sugat brand from Israel.
· Kitni OU Kitniyot
Short grain: Nishiki, KoKuho and Cal Rose brands (K-ORC) are also enrichment free. They can be found at Wegmans and most Oriental stores.
Brown rice: Any brand without additives. The brand at Costco looked very clean and easier than most to check.
Basmati: Deer Brand, Himalayim, B&J brand or any unenriched.
Pure wild Rice: (looks like short black sticks is acceptable without a marking: it is from the grass family, not a legume at all.
Rice Mixes: Kitni OU Kitniyot
Rice cakes: Kitni OU Kitniyot
It has been our custom throughout the generations to check all rice three
times before Pesach. While in Arkansas, I was informed that the
crops are rotated yearly, and that it is very common to find grain in rice
fields. Although there is equipment to remove any non-rice pieces, it is not
100 % effective. Please be advised that every year grains are found in the
rice, check carefully.
The
same is applicable to all form of kitniyot permitted to Sephardim on Pesach (Rice,
millet, corn and legumes are not among the five prohibited grains on Passover,
but Jews of North-European origin have traditionally avoided them during the
holiday).
Kashering the
Kitchen
Pessah
Kasher Ve-Sameah!
Hakham
Dr. Yosef ben Haggai
[1] Also corresponds to the five times the term nefesh is mentioned in the Yom Kippurim Torah reading.
[2] These opening remarks are excerpted, and edited, from: The ArtScroll Tanach Series, Tehillim, A new translation with a commentary anthologized from Talmudic, Midrashic, and rabbinic sources. Commentary by Rabbi Avrohom Chaim Feuer, Translation by Rabbi Avrohom Chaim Feuer in collaboration with Rabbi Nosson Scherman.
[3] Ruth chapter 3
[4] Bereshit (Genesis) 19:31ff
[5] Bereshit (Genesis) 38
[6] Mitzva = a good deed
[7] Chazal (Hebrew: חז"ל), an acronym for the Hebrew "Ḥakhameinu Zikhram Liv'rakha" (חכמינו זכרונם לברכה, "Our Sages, may their memory be blessed"), refers to all Jewish sages of the Mishna, Tosefta and Talmud eras, spanning from the times of the final 300 years of the Second Temple of Jerusalem until the 6th century CE, or c. 250 BCE – c. 625 CE.
[8] Melachim alev (I Kings) 14:21: And Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was forty and one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which HaShem had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, to put His name there; and his mother's name was Naamah the Ammonitess.
[9] Devarim (Deuteronomy) 25:5
[10] Midrash Rabbah - Genesis 85:8
[11] Chapter 36
[12] Yehezechel (Ezekiel) 37:5
[13] Bereshit (Genesis) 4:12
[14] Melachim alev (I Kings) 14:21
[15] Bereshit (Genesis) 19:15
[16] Bereshit Rabbah 41:4
[17] This section was adapted from Rav Yaakov Medan.
[18] According to Rashi and Chazal but not according to Ibn Ezra
[19] Yibum, or levirate marriage in Judaism, is one of the most complex types of marriages mandated by Torah law (Deuteronomy 25:5-10) by which, according to the law, the brother of a man who died without children has an obligation to marry the widow.
[20] Bereshit 19:31
[21] Devarim 25:5
[22] Ruth 4:5
[23] Devarim 25:6
[24] The land of the living is Israel.
[25] Moshe Alshich, (1508–1593), known as the Alshich Hakadosh (the Holy), was a prominent rabbi, preacher, and biblical commentator in the latter part of the 16th century. The Alshich was born in 1508 in the Ottoman Empire, and was the son of Hayyim Alshich. He later moved to Safed where he became a student of Rabbi Joseph Caro. His students included Rabbi Hayim Vital and Rabbi Yom Tov Tzahalon. He died in Safed in 1593.
[26] A transmigrated soul. When Yeshua calls Yochanan (John) ‘The Elijah who was to come’, He was indicating that Yochanan had the soul of Elijah.
[27] Isaac S. D. Sassoon is an observant Sephardic rabbi (hakham), scholar and educator. Hakham Sassoon, who is currently one of the leading scholars in the Sephardic world, was born into the Sassoon family of London.
[28] See I Shmuel (I Samuel) 24:1-15; note especially 24:12-15. See also Yirmiyahu (Jeremiah) 22:1-5
[29] Gilgul, (plural: גלגולים Gilgulim) describes a Kabbalistic concept of reincarnation. In Hebrew, the word gilgul means "cycle" or "wheel" and neshamot is the plural for "souls." Souls are seen to "cycle" through "lives" or "incarnations", being attached to different human bodies over time. Which body they associate with depends on their particular task in the physical world, spiritual levels of the bodies of predecessors and so on. The concept relates to the wider processes of history in Kabbalah, involving Cosmic Tikkun (Messianic rectification), and the historical dynamic of ascending Lights and descending Vessels from generation to generation. The esoteric explanations of gilgul were articulated in Jewish mysticism by Isaac Luria in the 16th century, as part of the metaphysical purpose of Creation.
[30] Vayikra (Leviticus) 19:9-10 The mitzvah of Leket requires that when a few ears of grain fall to the ground at the time of harvest, they are to be left to the poor.
[31] Ruth 4:11
[32] Joel ben Samuel Sirkis, also known as the Bach - בית חדש) ב"ח)—an abbreviation of his magnum opus, Bayit Chadash—was a prominent Jewish posek and halakhist. He lived in central Europe and held rabbinical positions in Belz, Brest-Litovsk and Kraków. He lived from 1561 to 1640.
[33] Yosef Hayim (1 September 1835 – 30 August 1909) was a leading Baghdadi hakham (Sephardi rabbi), authority on halakha (Jewish law), and Master Kabbalist. He is best known as author of the work on Halakha Ben Ish Ḥai (בן איש חי) ("Son of Man (who) Lives"), a collection of the laws of everyday life interspersed with mystical insights and customs, addressed to the masses and arranged by the weekly Torah portion.
[34] Tanach is an acronym for Torah, Neviim, and Ketuvim. These are the Hebrew words for Law, Prophets, and Writings. This is what Jews call the Old Testament.
[35] Rebecca
[36] see Targum Onkelos and Rashbam to Bereishit 27:13
[37] Ruth Rabba 6:1
[38] For further elaboration on this subject, see Nechama Leibowitz’s “Studies on Sefer Bereishit.”
[39] Ruth Rabbah 7:1
[40] Desecration of God’s Name
[41] "Them" are those souls that reside among the
Gentiles/Nations possessing the Nefesh Yehudi but still in Gentile vessels
[42] "dedicated to God" see UBS Handbook p. 197
[43] Ibid
[44] They did not submit themselves to the Bate Din and
Hakhamim and were therefore not subjected to God's authority.
[45] Life here is
conditional on keeping the mitzvoth. This can also be translated “If a man does
what the Torah commands, the Torah will cause him to live.”
[46] Jeremiah 31:33 "But this is the covenant which
I will make with the house of Israel after those days," declares the LORD,
"I will put My Torah within them and on their heart I will write it; and I
will be their God, and they will be My people.
[47] ὁμολογέω homologeo -
from 3674 ὁμοῦ [homou /hom·oo/] adv. Genitive case of homos
(the same, akin to 260) as adv; GK 3938; Three occurrences; AV translates as
“together” three times. 1
together: of persons assembled together. Additional Information: For
synonyms see entry 260, Strong’s Concordance/Dictionary.
ὁμολογέω homologeo -
words together or in agreement
ὁμολογέω - from a basic
meaning say the same thing
[48] If one admits that, the Oral Torah (logos) of the
Master is true he will have his part in the Olam Haba. Concerning this, the
Rambam (Maimonides) taught: “PRINCIPLE 12 is [that pertaining to] the era of
the Messiah; that is, [we are] to believe and to affirm that [the Messiah] will
come – and we are not to suppose that he will delay his coming, [as it is
said,] Though it tarry, wait for it (Hab. 2:3); we are to set no time
for his arrival, and we are to avoid making calculations from Scripture by way
of predicting the time of his coming. Thus, the Sages say: “Woe betide them
that make calculations of the End” (i.e. of the Era of Messiah – TB Sanh 97b). Moreover, we are to believe that
the Messiah will enjoy pre-eminence, excellence, and glory to a degree
surpassing those of all kings that were ever in existence, even as all the
Prophets – from Moses our Teacher, peace be upon him, to Malachi, peace be upon
him – have prophesied concerning him. He who doubts his coming or detracts from his
pre-eminence thereby denies the Torah – it being expressly attested in the
Torah, in the portion [dealing with] Balaam (cf. Numb. 24:17), and in that of Attem
Nitzavim (cf. Deut. 28:9 – 30:20, particularly 30:3-5). It is
included under the terms of this PRINCIPLE that the reigning kings of Israel
should be of the house of David and descendants of Solomon, so that he who revolts against a king
from this family is as if he denied the Name of the LORD, blessed be He, and
the words of His prophets (see Mishneh Torah, Shoftim, Hilchot
Melakhim I:7-9).” The Commandments by Moses Maimonides, translated by
Charles, B. Chavel, 1967, London: The Soncino Press, Vol. I, pp. 279-280.
[49] Hirsch, Rav Samson Raphael, The Hirsch Chumash, Sefer
B’Midbar, Feldheim Publishers –Judaica Press, 2008 p.158
[50] Cf. Sanhedrin 98b
[51] Fraade, Steven D. (2005) "Nomos and Narrative
Before Nomos and Narrative," Yale Journal of Law & the Humanities:
Vol. 17: Iss. 1,Article 5. p. 4 Available at: http://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/yjlh/vol17/iss1/5
Fraade also points out
that the noun “Torah,” means “directive,” and other words may have seemed
proper but the translators of the LXX were consistent in translating Torah as
Nomos.
[52] Bruce, F. F. The Epistle of Paul to the Romans: An
Introduction and Commentary. The Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 6.
Leicester, England : Grand Rapids, Mich: Inter-Varsity Press ; W.B.
Eerdmans Pub. Co, 1983. pp. 52-53
[53] Tomson, Peter J. Paul and the Jewish Law: Halakha
in the Letters of the Apostle to the Gentiles. Compendia Rerum Iudaicarum
Ad Novum Testamentum, v. 1. Assen [Netherlands] : Minneapolis: Van
Gorcum ; Fortress Press, 1990. p.55 Note: this is our interpretation of
Tomson’s words
[54] Cover, Robert M., "The Supreme Court, 1982 Term
-- Foreword: Nomos and Narrative" (1983). Faculty Scholarship Series. Paper
2705. p. 4
[55] Berger, Peter L. The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a
Sociological Theory of Religion. Reprint edition. New York: Anchor, 1990.
[56] Cf. Rashi’s comments to Gen. 1:1
[57] Tractate Sanhedrin demonstrates this clearly in
showing us how the Judges are taught how to interact with “witnesses” in order
to extract nomos from their testimonies.
[58] Greene, Moira 17, 36; W. K. C. Guthrie, History
of Greek Philosophy. Vol. III (Cambridge: The University Press 1962–1981)
p. 55. and Martens, John W. One God, One Law: Philo of Alexandria on the
Mosaic and Greco-Roman Law. Ancient Mediterranean and Medieval Texts and
Contexts, v. 2. Boston: Brill Academic Publishers, 2003 ch.1
[59] 2 Luqas
15:19-21 Therefore, my judgment is that we should not
cause difficulty for those from among the Gentiles who turn to God, but
we should write a letter to them to abstain from the pollution of idols and
from sexual immorality and from what has been strangled and from blood. For
[the rest you have] Moshe who has those proclaiming him in every city from
ancient generations, because he is
read aloud in the synagogues on every Sabbath.”
[60] Chesed: It is G-d’s loving-kindness, to bring
Gentiles into faithful obedience of the Torah and Oral Torah through the agent
of Yeshua our Messiah.
[61] Igeret Reshut: “Letter of Permission.”
The Bet Din of Yeshua’s three pillars, Hakham Tsefet, Hakham Ya’aqob and Hakham
Yochanan, would have issued this Igeret Reshut. This would have been very
important to the Jewish Synagogues of the first century. Furthermore, we can
see that Hakham Shaul must have followed this practice in all of his
interactions with Jewish Synagogues. In the second Igeret to Corinthians Hakham
Shaul asks if he needs an Igeret Reshut. Cf. 2 Co 3:1. Hakham Shaul’s Igeret
Reshut is his letter of acceptance as a Chaber among the “Apostles.” His office
is subjected to the Three Pillars rather than the Bat Kol. We find b. B.M.
59b as a precedent for understanding that a Bat Kol does not usurp the
authority of the Bet Din. In this case, the Bet Din are the chief Nazarean
Hakhamim.
[62] Name: ὄνομα – onoma, (name) meaning authority
[63] Romans 1:5
[64] Martens, John W. One God, One Law: Philo of
Alexandria on the Mosaic and Greco-Roman Law. Ancient Mediterranean and
Medieval Texts and Contexts, v. 2. Boston: Brill Academic Publishers, 2003 ch.
3
[65] Fraade, Steven D. (2005) "Nomos and Narrative
Before Nomos and Narrative," Yale Journal of Law & the Humanities:
Vol. 17: Iss. 1,Article 5. Available at: http://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/yjlh/vol17/iss1/5
[66] Samely, Alexander. Rabbinic Interpretation of
Scripture in the Mishnah. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. pp.
1-110
[67] Philo, o. A.,
& Yonge, C. D. (1996, c1993). The works of Philo: Complete and
unabridged (422). Peabody: Hendrickson.
[68] Fraade, Steven D. (2005) "Nomos and Narrative
Before Nomos and Narrative," Yale Journal of Law & the Humanities:
Vol. 17: Iss. 1,Article 5. Available at: http://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/yjlh/vol17/iss1/5
[69] Philo, o. A.,
& Yonge, C. D. (1996, c1993). The works of Philo: Complete and
unabridged (422). Peabody: Hendrickson.
[70]Kittel, Gerhard,
Geoffrey William Bromiley, and Gerhard Friedrich. Theological Dictionary of
the New Testament. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1964. 4:1052.
[71] Abraham descendants refer to the Jewish people who
have both forms of the Torah and the Gentiles who are held accountable to the
Oral Torah.