Parashat 2- Portion 5

Beresheet/Gen 6:9 – 7:24

Our congregation has decided to follow the three year cycle of Torah study. Below is a brief description of the triennial cycle.

“The Triennial cycle of Torah reading refers to the historical practice in ancient Israel by which the entire Torah was read in serial fashion over a three year period, or to the practice adopted by many congregations in which the traditional weekly Torah portions were divided into thirds, and in which one third of each weekly  "Parashah" of the annual system is read during the appropriate week of the calendar.

According to the Jewish Encyclopaedia, the triennial cycle "was the practice in Palestine, whereas in Babylonia the entire Pentateuch was read in the synagogue in the course of a single year," As late as 1170 Benjamin of Tudela mentioned Egyptian congregations that took three years to read the Torah”. (Wikipedia)

Blessing for the Torah:

Baruch atah YHVH, Eloheynu, Melech ha-O’lam, asher bachar banu m’kol ha-amim,v’natan lanu eht Torah-to. Baruch atah YHVH, noteyn ha-Torah. Ameyn.”

(Blessed are you, YHVH, our Elohim , King of the Universe, you have selected us from among all the peoples, and have given us your Torah. Blessed are you, YHVH, giver of the Torah. Ameyn.)

 “Noach” the title of this week’s parasha means to “rest or take a rest.” Today these words still apply to a remnant who desire to walk as our Master walked.

Ivrim/Heb 4:11  Let us therefore do our utmost to enter into that rest, lest anyone fall after the same example of disobedience.¹ Footnote: ¹See 3:18.

Heb 4:12  For the Word of Elohim is living, and working, and sharper than any two-edged sword, cutting through even to the dividing of being and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. (The Torah or Word of Elohim was given on mount Sinai, the rest of the scriptures is commentary on this Word)

The same warning Noach gave to his generation applies to our generation today.

Luk 17:26  “And as it came to be in the days of Noaḥ, so also shall it be in the days of the Son of Aḏam:

Luk 17:27  “They were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noaḥ went into the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.

Luk 17:28  “And likewise, as it came to be in the days of Lot: They were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were building,

Luk 17:29  but on the day Lot went out of Seḏom it rained fire and sulphur from heaven and destroyed all.

Luk 17:30  “It shall be the same in the day the Son of Aḏam is revealed.

 Note how YHVH protects and also removes His people from destruction.

In the account of Noach we have a “hidden” teaching about the “mikvah” (immersion) of believers.

Kepha addresses this mystery when speaking of the disobedient generation during Noach’s time saying:

 1Pe 3:20  who were disobedient at one time when the patience of Elohim waited in the days of Noaḥ, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight beings, were saved through water,

1Pe 3:21  which figure now also saves us: immersion – not a putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward Elohim – through the resurrection of יהושע Messiah,

When the Ruach of YHVH calls you and guides you, you will often find yourself in a wilderness, sometimes it will feel like you are dying. When we go through a “mikvah” or immersion we acknowledge that this is the way we follow our Master.

The mystery we know is that a special kind of living requires a special kind of dying.

About “Tevilla” or “Mikvah” (Some say “Mikveh”):

How can the Mikvot/Immersions (plural for “mikvah”) that were part of the life of the children of Yisrael and of the early believers in Yahshua (Jew and non-Jew) become important concepts in our lives as Grafted-in believers today?

Let’s examine the origins of the mikvah and discover the rich symbolism that is available to us as Grafted-In believers. 

There are two terms, Tevillah and Mikvah or Mikveh used here. Originally in Hebrew, the word Tevilah is the Hebrew Scriptural (Biblical) act of immersing oneself in a natural water source. In ancient times a stream or river was used but in modern times a specially constructed pool called a mikvah is normally built at Synagogues (Orthodox and Messianic Jewish synagogues) but many non Jewish Messianic believers like us are making use of streams and rivers for a mikvah. Today, in Judaism, the terms Tevilla and Mikvah are used somewhat interchangeably, with mikvah emerging as the more familiar term. According to the Sages the “Mikvah”, or ritual bath must contain 40 “seah” of rainwater (a seah is a typical halachic measurement that corresponds to approximately 7.33 litres, therefore 40 Seah’s equals 293.2 litres) The “forty” being a hidden reference to the forty days and nights that rain came upon the earth during the flood.

Water baptism (Mikvah/Immersion) was not originally a ‘Christian’ act.

 All through the TaNaKH (so called Old Testament), the children of Yisrael, whenever they would have to come before Elohim, would cleanse themselves.

Reasons that we find in Torah and in the Hebrew halachic foundations for going through a mikvah:

The High priest and Priests should immerse themselves for the maintenance of ceremonial cleanliness.

(On Yom Kippur once a year the High Priest immersed himself before he went into the Most Set Apart place).
If a man has an emission of semen.
If you come into contact with a dead body.
If you come into contact with a dead body of an unclean animal.
If you walk through a grave yard.
If you touch someone else who is ceremonially unclean.

If you are healed of a disease.

After childbirth.

If a woman has a monthly period.

A bride before her wedding.

Other personal meaningful reasons for a mikvah:
If you have showed excessive anger and have a heart of repentance.

Immersion of ourselves as an act of repentance for a sin that we got involved in and repented of. 

(In order to move on in YHVH, we must strive for a higher degree of set apartness (holiness), (without set-apartness no man shall see Elohim). We must remember that the water does not defile and the water does not purify ... it is heart attitude. We can never immerse ourselves enough to wash away our sins. Only the Blood of Yahshua can do that.