Blessing of Torah.
Hebrew:
Baruch atah YHVH eloheinu melech
ha-olam, asher kideshanu b'mitzvotav, v'tzivanu la'asok b'divrei Torah.
V'ha'arev na YHVH eloheinu et divrei toratecha befinu uvfi amecha beit Yisrael.
V'niyeh anachnu v'tze'etze'einu v'tze'etza'ei amecha beit Yisrael kullanu yodei
sh'mecha v'lomdei toratecha lishmah. Baruch atah YHVH hamelamed Torah le'amo
Yisrael. Baruch atah YHVH Eloheinu melech ha-olam, asher bachar banu mikol
ha'amim venatan lanu et torato. Baruch atah YHVH, notein haTorah.
English
translation: Blessed are You, YHVH
our Elohim, King of the universe, who has made us set apart through His
commandments and commanded us to actively study Torah. Please YHVH, our Elohim,
sweeten the words of Your Torah in our mouths and in the mouths of all Your
people Israel. May we and our offspring, and 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 desire. Blessed are You, YHVH, Who teaches Torah to
His people Israel. Blessed are You, YHVH our Elohim, King of the universe, Who
chose us from all the nations and gave us the Torah. Blessed are You, YHVH,
Giver of the Torah.
If
we are honest we realize that we don’t really have the answers to many of the
questions and challenges many face each day.
On a train subway station wall were
inscribed the words – “Jesus is the answer” below these words another graffiti
appeared “what’s the question.”
It is abundantly clear that the glib
religious answers we give to life’s most serious challenges are simply not
taken seriously anymore.
The
Torah portion we are presently studying “Acharei Mot” or “after the death”
engages man with the very core issues of life and a meaningful enjoyment of
that life.
We see in chapter 16 the instruction of
“Yom Ha Kippurim” addresses one of the most fundamental questions of all
religions of all time, the question of how to acceptably approach the presence
of an all -powerful Being - YHVH.
We see in chapter 17 how cleansing and
atonement is secured, in order for us to approach YHVH and live.
We see in chapter 18 how man can destroy
his or her relationship with YHVH.
The title of this Torah portion possibly
gives us a key on how we are to believe and act regarding these three core
issues.
We are to die to the myriad of religious
ideas and ways of approaching YHVH. We see that both Adav and Abihu died trying
“another way” to approach YHVH. ALL
religion without any exception will cause death to the one trying to approach
YHVH in any other way than the way prescribed by the Torah and fulfilled in
Yahshua.
We are to die to all kinds of human
effort and religious performance to secure our atonement and complete
forgiveness before YHVH – see Parashat 29 Portion 88.
We are to die to any kind of sexually
deviant behaviour as taught in the Torah – Vayikra 18.
Yahshua
will return “acharei mot” after the death of doing things our way and not His
way.
If
our lives are not built on the structure of Torah on the foundation of Messiah
we will be building our lives on sand.
The
coming world events will soon expose the quality of the foundations on which
our lives have been built.
1Co 3:11 For no one is able to lay any other
foundation except that which is laid, which is יהושע Messiah.
1Co 3:12 And if
anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay,
straw,
1Co 3:13 each
one’s work shall be revealed, for the day shall show it up, because it is
revealed by fire. And the fire shall prove the work of each one, what sort it
is.
1Co 3:14 If
anyone’s work remains, which he has built on, he shall receive a reward.
1Co 3:15 If
anyone’s work is burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved,
but so as through fire.
1Co 3:16 Do you
not know that you are a Dwelling Place of Elohim and that the Spirit of Elohim
dwells in you?
1Co 3:17 If anyone
destroys the Dwelling Place of Elohim, Elohim shall destroy him. For the
Dwelling Place of Elohim is set-apart, which you are.
1Co 3:18 Let no
one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him
become foolish, so that he might become wise.
1Co 3:19 For the
wisdom of this world is foolishness with Elohim. For it has been written, “He
catches the wise in their craftiness,”
1Co 3:20 and
again, “יהוה knows the thoughts of the wise, that they
are worthless.”
1Co 3:21 So then,
let no one boast in men, for all belongs to you,
1Co 3:22 whether
Sha’ul or Apollos or Kĕpha, or the world, or life, or death, or the present or
the future – all belongs to you.
1Co 3:23 And you
belong to Messiah, and Messiah belongs to Elohim.
Our
Torah Portion:
Lev 18:1 And יהוה spoke to
Mosheh, saying,
Lev 18:2 “Speak to
the children of Yisra’ĕl, and say to them, ‘I am יהוה your Elohim.
Lev 18:3 ‘Do not
do as they do in the land of Mitsrayim, where you dwelt. And do not do as they
do in the land of Kenaʽan, where I am bringing you, and do not walk in their
laws.
Lev 18:4 ‘Do My
right-rulings and guard My laws, to walk in them. I am יהוה your Elohim.
Lev 18:5 ‘And you
shall guard My laws and My right-rulings, which a man does and lives by them. I
am יהוה.
Rom 12:1 I call upon you, therefore, brothers, through
the compassion of Elohim, to present your bodies a living offering – set-apart,
well-pleasing to Elohim – your reasonable worship.
Rom 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be
transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you prove what is that good
and well-pleasing and perfect desire of Elohim.
1Co 2:14 But the natural man does not receive the matters
of the Spirit of Elohim, for they are foolishness to him, and he is unable to
know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Let’s imagine for a moment what kind of education a child would receive
growing up in a Torah keeping Elohim fearing home.
A young child would be
brought up enjoying and keeping Sabbath and the feasts. Such a child would grow
up in a community sharing the same values.
As a young Hebrew
child would be growing up they would know the values and norms taught by the
Torah. These children would not be sent to secular schools to learn customs
contrary to the Torah.
When these children
approached puberty they would enjoy the right of passage into young adulthood
by undergoing a bar or bat mitzvah – a kind of coming of age. These young
teenagers would make a serious commitment to their parents that they would keep
themselves sexually pure for their prospective husbands and wives in the coming
years.
They would normally
marry at a young age as not to subject themselves to prolonged periods of
sexual temptation.
Some of their parents with
their approval would choose a life partner for their children. When a prospective bridegroom wants to propose for a specific bride, he would first go to the parents with a gift and a contract to get the approval of the father and brothers (if there were brothers) and then if they approved, the girl was called in to accept or reject with the accompaniment of a small ceremony where the Ketubah then was accepted. The bridegroom would then return to his father's house and prepare a place.
After the marriage
ceremony under the “chuppah” they would enter the marriage chamber and engage
in sexual intercourse for the first time while the wedding guests were waiting
outside to begin the marriage feast.
The young bride would
appear from the room after her first sexual encounter and present the evidence
of her virginity on a specially prepared white cloth.
This would result in a
great jubilation from the crowd and a seven day celebration would follow.
In these Torah seeking
Hebrew communities they would take care of widows and orphans.
In fact it was very
important that all woman would be under some kind of protection so that no
woman could become vulnerable and be taken advantage of in any manner.
The early community of
Messianic believers may have experienced some kind of expression of such a
Hebraic community.
Act 2:39 “For the promise is to you and to your children,
and to all who are far off, as many as יהוה our Elohim
shall call.”
Act 2:40 And with
many other words he earnestly witnessed and urged them, saying, “Be saved from
this crooked generation.”1 Footnote: 1Jer. 51:6, Phil.
2:15, Rev. 18:4.
Act 2:41 Then
those, indeed, who gladly received his word, were immersed. And on that day
about three thousand beings were added to them.
Act 2:42 And they
were continuing steadfastly in the teaching of the emissaries, and in the
fellowship, and in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers.
Act 2:43 And fear
came upon every being, and many wonders and signs were being done through the
emissaries.
Act 2:44 And all
those who believed were together, and had all in common,
Act 2:45 and sold
their possessions and property, and divided them among all, as anyone might
have need.
Act 2:46 And day
by day, continuing with one mind in the Set-apart Place, and breaking bread
from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart,
Act 2:47 praising
Elohim and having favour with all the people. And the Master added to the
assembly those who were being saved, day by day.
Act 4:32 And the group of those who believed were of
one heart and one being. And no one claimed that any of his possessions was his
own, but they had all in common.
Act 4:33 And with great power the emissaries gave
witness to the resurrection of the Master יהושע, and great
favour was upon them all.
Act 4:34 For there
was not anyone needy among them, for all who were possessors of lands or houses
sold them, and brought the prices of what was sold,
Act 4:35 and laid
them at the feet of the emissaries, and they distributed to each as anyone had
need.
This can only happen in a Torah seeking Spirit filled
community.
Present day and historical evidence prove that most individuals
and communities have not sought to be guided and governed by Torah commandments
and instructions. Western civilization was founded on Pagan Christian
foundations. Here follows a quote about the contribution Constantine made to
the world.
“Roman economy, politics, culture, and
traditions grew in popularity under his regime. His policies laid the
foundation of the modern Western civilization. Although he religiously followed
old customs and traditions, (pagan) the laws were tolerant to every other
faith. However, he did this because of his personal interest, and not due to
his feelings for the contemporary society. Whatever the reason, he was
respected and liked by the army, clergy, and the masses equally.
He has gone down in history as one of the greatest emperors who had a lasting impact on the civilized world. In many ways Constantine was definitely more a ruthless opportunist than a Christian Savior, but his legacy nevertheless was a western civilization, ruled by Christianity, that might never have come about without him.”
In 2009 at the Stanford University a study was produced
on marriage customs in the ancient Greek and Roman cultures. Here follows some
extracts of this article:
https://www.princeton.edu/~pswpc/pdfs/scheidel/010903.pdf
“To
a modern western audience, the fact that ancient Greeks and Romans were not
supposed to be married to more than one person at any given time, nor even to
cohabit with others alongside legal spouses, must seem perfectly ‘normal’. This
may explain why this practice has received hardly any attention from historians
of the classical world. Yet from a global, cross-cultural perspective, there is
nothing ‘normal’ or unremarkable about this. Instead, until very recently,
polygynous arrangements of marriage or cohabitation were the norm in world
history, and strict monogamy remained an exception. Barely one in six of the
1,195 societies surveyed in the largest anthropological dataset have been
classified as ‘monogamous’, while polygyny was frequently considered the
preferred choice even if it failed to be common in practice (Gray (1998) 89-90,
with Clark (1998)).
Marriage in ancient Rome was a strictly monogomous institution: a Roman citizen by law could have only one spouse at a time.
The practice of monogamy distinguished the Greeks and Romans from other ancient civilizations (including Hebrew civilization)
Thus, even
though Greeks and Romans need not have been the first cultures to prescribe
monogamy, these are the earliest securely attested cases and, moreover,
established a paradigm for subsequent periods that eventually attained global
dominance. In this sense, Greco-Roman
monogamy may well be the single most important phenomenon of ancient history
that has remained widely unrecognized. Prescriptive monogamy remained a
defining feature of ‘being Greek’. End Quote.
Zec 9:12 “Return to the stronghold, you prisoners of
the expectation. Even today I declare that I return double to you. (The expectation of returning to our Elohim
intended Hebraic roots)
Zec 9:13 “For I shall bend Yehuḏah for Me, I shall fill
the bow with Ephrayim, and I shall stir up your sons, O Tsiyon, against your
sons, O Greece, and I shall make you like the sword of a mighty man.”
We have been plundered and robbed of
our Hebraic heritage, yet today the Hellenistic (Greek) culture and norms
remain the choice of preference to almost all Christians, Jews and even
Messiancs. The evidence in our actions, thinking and theological writings all
serve as proof of this. We see this phenomena expressed in such teachings as
the Trinity, the keeping of pagan festivals such as Christmas and Easter and
Sunday Worship; the eating of Pork and other forbidden meats; and the general
disregard of the teachings and practices of the Torah including marriage and
sexual relationships.
There can be no argument that Western
Civilization has been at the forefront of the promotion of homosexuality,
pornography and a host of other disgusting sexually deviant behaviour.
No wonder the world is in such a
mess.
Vs 4 and 5 need to be seen in the context of a Torah morality.
Lev 18:4 ‘Do My
right-rulings and guard My laws, to walk in them. I am יהוה your Elohim.
Lev 18:5 ‘And you
shall guard My laws and My right-rulings, which a man does and lives by them. I
am יהוה.
The world and the
church sadly have more authority than the teachings of the Torah in determining
what is right and wrong in issues of human sexuality.
Note in the following list that the Torah speaks of sexual practices
forbidden does not give a list of what to do and how we should conduct
ourselves sexually. The key to understanding Torah ordained sexual practice is
that you are not involved in secret unknown forbidden sexual relationships. An
Elohim fearing Torah seeking person would know how to conduct themselves in a
pleasing way before YHVH by knowing what is forbidden by YHVH.
Just think of the suffering many go through because of being victims of
molestation and rape.
Lev 18:6 ‘No one
is to approach anyone of his own flesh to uncover his nakedness. I am יהוה.
Lev 18:7 ‘The
nakedness of your father or the nakedness of your mother you do not uncover.
She is your mother, you do not uncover her nakedness.
Lev 18:8 ‘The
nakedness of your father’s wife you do not uncover, it is your father’s
nakedness.
Lev 18:9 ‘The
nakedness of your sister, the daughter of your father, or the daughter of your
mother, whether born at home or elsewhere, their nakedness you do not uncover.
Lev 18:10 ‘The
nakedness of your son’s daughter or your daughter’s daughter, their nakedness
you do not uncover, for theirs is your own nakedness.
Lev 18:11 ‘The
nakedness of your father’s wife’s daughter, brought forth by your father, she
is your sister, you do not uncover her nakedness.
Lev 18:12 ‘The
nakedness of your father’s sister you do not uncover, she is your father’s
flesh.
Lev 18:13 ‘The
nakedness of your mother’s sister you do not uncover, for she is your mother’s
flesh.
Lev 18:14 ‘The
nakedness of your father’s brother you do not uncover, you do not approach his
wife, she is your aunt.
Lev 18:15 ‘The
nakedness of your daughter-in-law you do not uncover, she is your son’s wife,
you do not uncover her nakedness.
Lev 18:16 ‘The
nakedness of your brother’s wife you do not uncover, it is your brother’s
nakedness.
Lev 18:17 ‘The
nakedness of a woman and her daughter you do not uncover, nor do you take her
son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter, to uncover her nakedness. They are
her relatives – it is wickedness.
Lev 18:18 ‘And do
not take a woman as a rival to her sister, to uncover her nakedness while the
other is alive.
Lev 18:19 ‘And do
not approach a woman to uncover her nakedness in her monthly separation of
uncleanness.
Lev 18:20 ‘And do
not have intercourse with the wife of your neighbour, to defile yourself with
her.
Lev 18:21 ‘And do
not give any of your offspring to pass through to Moleḵ. And
do not profane the Name of your Elohim. I am יהוה.
Lev 18:22 ‘And do
not lie with a male as with a woman, it is an abomination.
Lev 18:23 ‘And do
not have intercourse with any beast, to defile yourself with it. And a woman
does not stand before a beast to mate with it, it is a perversion.
Lev 18:24 ‘Do not
defile yourselves with all these, for by all these the nations are defiled,
which I am driving out before you.
Lev 18:25 ‘Thus
the land became defiled, therefore I punished it for its crookedness, and the
land vomited out its inhabitants.
Lev 18:26 ‘But
you, you shall guard My laws and My right-rulings, and not do any of these
abominations, the native nor stranger who sojourns among you,
Lev 18:27 because
the men of the land who were before you have done all these abominations, and
thus the land became defiled,
Lev 18:28 ‘So let
not the land vomit you out for defiling it, as it vomited out the nations that
were before you.
Lev 18:29 ‘For
whoever does any of these abominations, those beings who do them shall be cut
off from among their people.
Lev 18:30 ‘And you
shall guard My Charge, so as not to do any of these abominable practices which
were done before you, so as not to defile yourselves by them. I am יהוה your Elohim.’ ”
Baruch atah YHVH, Eloheynu,
Melech ha-‘Olam, asher natan lanu Toraht-emet, v’chay-yeh o’lam nata-b’tochenu.
Baruch atah YHVH, noteyn ha-Torah. Ameyn.”
(Blessed are you Yahweh, our Elohim, King of the
Universe, you have given us your Torah of truth, and have planted everlasting
life within our midst. Blessed are you, YHVH giver of the Torah – Ameyn
Please
note these notes are under construction and are subject to correction and are
in no way a final authority on any subject.