Blessing for the Torah:
Bar’chu et YHVH ha-m’vorach, Baruch YHVH
ha-m’vorach l’O’lam va-ed!
Baruch ata YHVH Eloheinu melech ha-olam asher
bachar banu m’kol ha-amim, v’na-tan lanu eht Torah-to.
Baruch atah YHVH, noteyn ha-Torah. Ameyn.”
(Bless YHVH the blessed One; Blessed is YHVH,
the blessed One for all eternity. 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.)
Hos 10:11 “And Ephrayim is a trained heifer, loving to
thresh grain. But I Myself shall pass over her comely neck – I put Ephrayim to
the yoke, Yehuḏah
ploughs, Yaʽaqoḇ harrows for him.”
“Ephrayim loves to thresh the corn…..” she
loves the blessing of eating but not so much the responsibility of ploughing.
This could be a reference to taking upon ourselves the yoke of Torah. This has
been evident among the so called 10 lost tribes of Yisrael (Ephrayim) and it
was left to the house of Judah to carry the yoke of the Torah in ploughing and
preparing the fields for sowing of YHVH’s Seed – Word – Torah.
“I put Ephrayim to the yoke..” a hiphyl or
causative verb is used here and implies that YHVH will cause Ephrayim to once
again take up the responsibility to wear the yoke of Torah and in so doing join
Judah in preparing and producing an end time harvest – see Matt 11:28-29.
A yoke speaks of our
covenant commitment to YHVH and His Torah. It can also speak of a covenant
relationship between a man and a woman.
Our
Torah portion begins by giving us instructions relating to divorce and forbidden
remarriage. We could say this instruction implies under certain conditions YHVH
will no longer be willing to renew His covenant with those who have left Him to
serve other mighty ones, or those who continually walk in rebellion to YHVH’s
Torah.
Deu 24:1 “When a
man takes a wife and shall marry her, then it shall be, if she finds no favour
in his eyes because he has found a matter of uncoveredness in her, and he shall
write her a certificate of divorce, and put it in her hand, and send her out of
his house,
Deu 24:2
and if she left his house and went and became another man’s wife,
Deu 24:3
and the latter husband shall hate her and write her a certificate of
divorce, and put it in her hand, and send her out of his house, or when the
latter husband dies who took her to be his wife,
Deu 24:4
then her former husband who sent her away is not allowed to take her
back to be his wife after she has been defiled, for that would be an
abomination before יהוה. And do not bring sin on the land which יהוה your Elohim is giving you as an inheritance. (1 Cor 7:11)
Can
YHVH issue a people with a certificate of divorce?
Jer 3:8 “And I saw that for all the causes for which
backsliding Yisra’ĕl had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a
certificate of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Yehuḏah did not fear, but
went and committed whoring too.
The reason for this divorce is a “matter of
uncoveredness” “ervat davar” – this could be a sexual transgression or an area
of her life where she refuses to come under the covering of her husband. The
only other place these words appear together is in Dev/Deut 23:14 speaking of
the need to construct latrines since YHVH walks among Yisrael.
We are confronted with the tragic possibility that
after being in covenant with YHVH, one’s continual wrong choices(rebellion
against Torah) can result in being separated from YHVH forever.
The
opening verses in our parashah are the only verses found in the Torah giving
instructions about divorce and remarriage.
Other
texts in the Torah refer to divorce but give no guidelines – Lev 21:14; 22:13,
Num 30:9; Deut 22:19,29.
The
sad reality is that religious men have gone to one extreme or the other and
have brought people into bondage concerning this issue. Suffice to say that
there are many divorces that should never have taken place.
Most
important for understanding our Torah text concerning divorce and remarriage is
the words that Yahshua spoke on this issue.
Mat 19:7 They said to Him, “Why then did Mosheh command
to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?”
Mat 19:8 He said to them, “Because of the hardness of
your hearts, Mosheh allowed you to put away your wives, but from the beginning
it was not so.
Mat 19:9 “And I say to you, whoever puts away his
wife, except on the ground of whoring, and marries another, commits adultery.1
And whoever marries her who has been put away commits adultery.”1
Footnote:1See footnote 5:32.
This
was a direct response of Yahshua to our Torah portion text.
Mat 19:2 And large crowds followed Him, and He healed
them there.
Mat 19:3 And the Pharisees came to Him, trying Him,
and saying to Him, “Is it right for a man to put away his wife for every
reason?”
Mat 19:4 And He answering, said to them, “Did you not
read that He who made them at the beginning made them male and female,
Mat 19:5 and said, ‘For this cause a man shall leave
his father and mother and cleave to his wife, and the two shall become one
flesh’?
Mat 19:6 “So that they are no longer two, but one
flesh. Therefore, what Elohim has joined together, let man not separate.”
Shaul
gives us some valuable insight into this matter as well.
1Co 7:8 And I say to the unmarried and to the widows:
It is good for them if they remain even as I am,
1Co 7:9 but if they do not have self-control, let
them marry, for it is better to marry than to burn.
1Co 7:10 And to the married I command, not I, but the
Master: A wife should not separate from a husband.
1Co 7:11 But if she is indeed separated, let her
remain unmarried or be restored to favour with her husband, and let a husband
not send away a wife.
1Co 7:12 And to the rest I say, not the Master: If any
brother has an unbelieving wife, and she thinks well to live with him, let him
not send her away.
1Co 7:13 And a woman who has an unbelieving husband,
and he thinks well to live with her, let her not send him away.
1Co 7:14 For the unbelieving husband has been
set-apart in the wife, and the unbelieving wife has been set-apart in the
husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are set-apart.
1Co 7:15 And, if the unbelieving one separates, let
him separate himself. A brother or a sister has not been enslaved in such
matters. But Elohim has called us to peace.
1Co 7:16 For how do you know, O wife, whether you
shall save your husband? Or how do you know, O husband, whether you shall save
your wife?
1Co 7:17 Only, as Elohim has distributed to each one,
as the Master has called each one, so let him walk. And so I order in all the
assemblies.
Instructions
relating to marriage and exemption from military duty.
Deu
24:5 “When a man has taken a new wife,
let him not go out into the army nor let any matter be imposed upon him. He
shall be exempt one year for the sake of his home, to rejoice with his wife
whom he has taken.
Instruction
relating to loans and pledges.
Deu
24:6 “No one takes in pledge the lower
or the upper millstone, for he would be taking a life in pledge.
Instruction
relating to kidnapping.
Deu
24:7 “When a man is found kidnapping any
of his brothers of the children of Yisra’ĕl, and treats him harshly or sells
him, then that kidnapper shall die. Thus you shall purge the evil from your
midst.
Instruction
relating to skin infection:
Deu
24:8 “Take heed, in an outbreak of
leprosy, to diligently guard and do according to all that the priests, the
Lĕwites, teach you. As I have commanded them, so you shall guard to do.
Deu
24:9 “Remember what יהוה your Elohim did to Miryam on the way when you came out of
Mitsrayim.
Instructions
relating to loans and pledges:
Deu
24:10 “When you lend your brother a
loan, do not go into his house to get his pledge.
Deu
24:11 “Stand outside, and let the man to
whom you lend bring the pledge out to you.
Deu
24:12 “And if the man is poor, do not
sleep with his pledge.
Deu
24:13 “By all means return the pledge to
him at sundown, and he shall sleep in his own garment, and shall bless you. And
it shall be righteousness to you before יהוה your Elohim.
Instructions
relating to wages paid to hired workers:
Deu
24:14 “Do not oppress a hired servant
who is poor and needy, of your brothers or of the strangers who is in your land
within your gates.
Deu
24:15 “Give him his wages on the same
day, and do not let the sun go down on it, for he is poor and lifts up his
being to it, so that he does not cry out against you to יהוה, and it shall be sin in you.
Instruction
relating to capital punishment:
Deu
24:16 “Fathers are not put to death for
their children, and children are not put to death for their fathers, each is to
die for his own sin.
Instruction
relating to equal justice for all:
Deu
24:17 “Do not twist the right-ruling of
a stranger or the fatherless, nor take the garment of a widow.
Deu
24:18 “But you shall remember that you
were a slave in Mitsrayim, and that יהוה your Elohim redeemed you from there. Therefore I am commanding
you to do this word.
Instructions
relating to gleanings:
Deu
24:19 “When you reap your harvest in
your field, and have forgotten a sheaf in the field, do not go back to get it.
Let it be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow, so that יהוה your Elohim might bless you in all the work of your hands.
Deu
24:20 “When you beat your olive trees,
do not examine the branch behind you. Let it be for the stranger, for the fatherless,
and for the widow.
Deu
24:21 “When you gather the grapes of
your vineyard, do not glean behind you. Let it be for the stranger, for the
fatherless, and for the widow.
Deu
24:22 “And you shall remember that you
were a slave in the land of Mitsrayim. Therefore I am commanding you to do this
word.
Instructions relating to corporal punishment for
offenders:
Deu 25:1 “When
there is a dispute between men, then they shall come unto judgment, and they
shall be judged, and the righteous declared righteous and the wrongdoer
declared wrong.
Deu 25:2
“And it shall be, if the wrongdoer is to be beaten, that the judge shall
cause him to lie down and be beaten in his presence with the number of blows
according to his wrong.
Deu 25:3
“Forty blows he gives him but no more, lest he beat him with many more
blows than these, and your brother be degraded before your eyes.
Instructions
relating to muzzling an ox:
Deu 25:4 Thou
shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn.
Instructions
relating to Levirate marriages:
Deu 25:5 “When brothers dwell together, and one
of them has died, and has no son, the widow of the dead man shall not become a
stranger’s outside. Her husband’s brother does go in to her, and shall take her
as his wife, and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her.
Deu 25:6
“And it shall be that the first-born son which she bears does rise up
for the name of his dead brother, so that his name is not blotted out of Yisra’ĕl.
Deu 25:7
“But if the man does not desire to take his brother’s wife, then let his
brother’s wife go up to the gate to the elders, and say, ‘My husband’s brother
refuses to raise up a name to his brother in Yisra’ĕl, he does not agree to
perform the duty of my husband’s brother.’
Deu 25:8
“The elders of his city shall then call him and speak to him, and he
shall stand and say, ‘I have no desire to take her,’
Deu 25:9
then his brother’s wife shall come to him in the presence of the elders,
and remove his sandal from his foot, and shall spit in his face, and answer and
say, ‘Thus it is done to the man who does not build up his brother’s house.’
Deu 25:10
“And in Yisra’ĕl his name shall be called, ‘The house of him who had his
sandal removed.’
Instructions
relating to inflicting an unjust injury:
Deu 25:11
“When men fight with one another, and the wife of one shall draw near to
rescue her husband from the hand of the one attacking him, and shall put out
her hand and seize him by the genitals,
Deu 25:12
then you shall cut off her hand – your eye does not pardon.
Instructions
relation to weights and measures:
Deu 25:13
“You shall not have in your bag differing weights, a heavy and a light.
Deu 25:14
“You shall not have in your house differing measures, a large and a
small.
Deu 25:15
“You shall have a perfect and right weight, a perfect and right measure,
so that they prolong your days on the soil which יהוה your Elohim is
giving you.
Deu
25:16 “For all who do these, and all who
do unrighteously, are an abomination to יהוה your Elohim.
Command
to blot out the memory of
Deu
25:17 “Remember what Amalĕq did to you
on the way as you were coming out of Mitsrayim,
Deu
25:18 how he met you on the way and
attacked your back, all the feeble ones in your rear, when you were tired and
weary. And he did not fear Elohim.
Deu
25:19 “Therefore it shall be, when יהוה your Elohim has given you rest from your enemies all around, in
the land which יהוה your Elohim is giving you to possess as an
inheritance, that you blot out the remembrance of Amalĕq from under the
heavens. Do not forget!
Hos 11:8 “How could I give you up, Ephrayim? How could I hand you over, Yisra’ěl? How could I make you like Aḏmah? How could I set you like Tseḇoyim? My heart turns within Me, all My compassion is kindled.
Admah and Zeboiim were the little towns outside of Sodom
and Gomorroh, which were burned up with the larger cities when the sulfury fire
of Elohim fell from heaven in judgment on them (Mahlen; Deuteronomy 29:23;
see also Genesis 10:19; 14:2, 8).
YHVH has left the door open for the rebellious house of
Ephrayim to return to the fold, to return to the Torah and ancient ways of our
fathers – Avraham Yitzchak and Ya akov. Yahshua has made it possible for us to
return forever.
Tit
2:11 For the saving Gift of Elohim has appeared to all men,
Tit
2:14 who gave Himself for us, to redeem us from all lawlessness and to
cleanse for Himself a people, His own possession, ardent for good works.
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
Yahveh, 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