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.)
In the
previous portion, the narrative ends with the bleak notice that all mankind was
wiped from the face of the earth, and that Noach and his family were preserved
in the ark. It is against this picture of destruction that our parasha begins,
Noach and his family are preserved because YHVH ‘’remembered.’’ By His actions
we understand that YHVH confirms His commitment towards His people by means of
His covenant and promises.
Gen
8:1 And
Elohim remembered(vayizkor) Noaḥ, and all the beasts and all the cattle that were with him in the
ark. And Elohim made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters
subsided.
א וַיִּזְכֹּר אֱלֹהִים, אֶת-נֹחַ, וְאֵת
כָּל-הַחַיָּה וְאֶת-כָּל-הַבְּהֵמָה, אֲשֶׁר אִתּוֹ בַּתֵּבָה; וַיַּעֲבֵר
אֱלֹהִים רוּחַ עַל-הָאָרֶץ, וַיָּשֹׁכּוּ הַמָּיִם.
Exo
2:24 And Elohim heard their groaning, and Elohim remembered(vayizkor) His covenant with Aḇraham, with
Yitsḥaq, and with Ya‛aqoḇ.
Eze
16:59 For thus said the Master יהוה, “I shall deal with you as you have done, in that you have
despised the oath by breaking the covenant. Eze 16:60 “But I shall
remember My covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I shall establish
an everlasting covenant with you. Eze 16:61 “And you shall remember your
ways and be ashamed, when you receive your older and your younger sisters. And
I shall give them to you for daughters, though not by your own covenant. Eze
16:62 “And I Myself shall establish My covenant with you. And you shall
know that I am יהוה,
Eze
16:63 so that you remember. And you shall be ashamed, and never open your
mouth anymore because of your shame, when I pardon you for all you have done,”
declares the Master יהוה.’
”
Gen
8:2 And the fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were
stopped, and the rain from the heavens was withheld. Gen 8:3 And the
waters receded steadily from the earth, and at the end of the hundred and fifty
days the waters diminished. Gen 8:4 And in the seventh new moon,
the seventeenth day of the new moon, the ark rested on the mountains of
Ararat. Gen 8:5 And the waters decreased steadily until the tenth
new moon. In the tenth new moon, on the first day of the new moon,
the tops of the mountains became visible.
Gen
8:6 And it came to be, at the end of forty days, that Noaḥ opened the
window of the ark which he had made,
Gen
8:7 and he sent out a raven, which kept going out and turning back until
the waters had dried up from the earth. Gen 8:8 Then he sent out a
dove from him, to see if the waters had receded from the face of the
ground.
Gen
8:9 But the dove found no resting place for its feet and returned into
the ark to him, for the waters were on the face of all the earth. So he put out
his hand and took it, and pulled it into the ark to
himself. Gen 8:10 And he waited yet another seven days, and again he sent the dove out from the ark. Gen 8:11 And the dove came to him in the evening, and see, a freshly plucked olive leaf was in its mouth. And Noaḥ knew that the waters had receded from the earth. Gen 8:12 And he waited yet another seven days and sent out the dove, which did not return to him again.
himself. Gen 8:10 And he waited yet another seven days, and again he sent the dove out from the ark. Gen 8:11 And the dove came to him in the evening, and see, a freshly plucked olive leaf was in its mouth. And Noaḥ knew that the waters had receded from the earth. Gen 8:12 And he waited yet another seven days and sent out the dove, which did not return to him again.
“By bringing back a bitter olive leaf in its mouth, the
dove was saying symbolically, ‘’better that my food be bitter but from YHVH’s
Hand, than sweet as honey but dependant upon mortal man’’ – Rashi. R Hirsch
elaborates: For a full year, the dove could not earn its own food; but hunger
forced it to rely on Noach’s kindness. Then it found a bitter leaf that it
would ordinarily not eat – and carried it back to Noach, preaching the lesson
of the sages, that even the bitterest food eaten in freedom is better than the
sweetest food given in servitude’’ Stones Chumash page 38.
Gen
8:13 And it came to be in the six hundred and first year, in the first month,
the first day of the new moon, that the waters were dried up from the
earth. And Noaḥ removed the covering of the ark and looked, and saw the surface
of the ground was dry. Gen 8:14 And in the second new moon,
on the twenty-seventh day of the new moon, the earth was dry. Gen
8:15 And Elohim spoke to Noaḥ, saying, Gen 8:16 “Go out of the
ark, you and your wife and your sons and your sons’ wives with you. Gen
8:17 “Bring out with you every life form of all flesh that is with
you: of birds, of cattle and all creeping creatures – the creeping creatures
on the earth. And let them teem on the earth, and bear and increase on the
earth.” Gen 8:18 So Noaḥ went out, and his sons and his wife and his
sons’ wives with him,
Gen
8:19 every beast, every creeping creature, and every bird,
whatever creeps on the earth, according to their kinds, went out of the
ark.
YHVH's Covenant with Noach
Gen
8:20 And Noaḥ built a slaughter-place to יהוה, and took of every clean beast and of every clean bird, and
offered ascending offerings on the slaughter-place. (re-establishing
covenant)Gen 8:21 And יהוה smelled a soothing
fragrance, and יהוה
said in His heart, “Never again shall I curse the ground because of man,
although the inclination of man’s heart is evil from his youth, and never again
strike all living creatures, as I have done, Gen 8:22 as long
as the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and
winter, and day and night shall not cease.”
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
Additional Notes on
Covenant: For us to understand YHVH and His Word we need to understand
YHVH’s marriage and divorce of Israel. YHVH entered a marriage covenant with
Israel on mount Sinai.
Exo
19:5 ‘And now, if you diligently obey My voice, and shall guard My
covenant, then you shall be My treasured possession above all the peoples – for
all the earth is Mine – (Deut 7:6-8)
The recording of Yisrael's vows (ketubah) is recorded on
Exodus chapters 21-23.
Yisrael responds and says “I will do and obey’’ - Exo
24:7 And he took the Book of the Covenant and read in the hearing of the
people. And they said, “All that יהוה has spoken we shall do, and obey.”
This marriage covenant was ratified with blood - Exo 24:8 And Mosheh took the
blood and sprinkled it on the people, and said, “See, the blood of the covenant
which יהוה has
made with you concerning all these Words.”
YHVH’s Divorce from Yisrael: Yisrael was unfaithful to YHVH
from the beginning. His wife (united Israel) was divided into two kingdoms: The
kingdom of Judah in the south which included Benjamin and part of Levi, and the
kingdom of Israel in the north which contained the remaining 10 tribes.
(Division fo Israel 1Kings 11:29-37 – 932BCE)
Now there are ‘’two houses’’ ‘’two wives’’
Eze 23:2 “Son of man, there were two women,
daughters of one mother. Eze 23:3 “And they whored in Mitsrayim,
they whored in their youth. There their breasts were handled, and there their
maiden nipples were squeezed.
Eze 23:4 “And their names were: Oholah the elder
and Oholiḇah her sister. And they were Mine, and they bore sons and daughters.
And their names: Shomeron is Oholah, and Yerushalayim is Oholiḇah. Eze
23:7 “So she gave her whorings on them, all of them choice sons of Ashshur.
And with all for whom she lusted, with all their idols, she defiled
herself. Eze 23:8 “And she did not forsake her whorings from
Mitsrayim, for in her youth they had lain with her, and they squeezed her
maiden nipples, and poured out their whorings on her. Eze 23:9
“Therefore I have given her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the
Ashshurians, for whom she lusted.
Eze 16:8 “Again I passed by you and looked upon you
and saw that your time was the time of carnal-love. And I spread My
skirt over you and covered your nakedness. And I swore an oath to you and
entered into a covenant with you, and you became Mine,” declares the Master יהוה. Eze
16:9 “And I washed you in water, and I washed off your blood, and I
anointed you with oil. Eze 16:10 “And I dressed you in embroidered
work and gave you sandals of leather. And I wrapped you in fine linen and
covered you with silk. Eze 16:11 “And I adorned you with ornaments,
and I put bracelets on your wrists, and a chain on your neck. Eze
16:12 “And I put a ring on your nose, and earrings in your ears, and a
crown of adorning on your head. Eze 16:13 “Thus you were adorned
with gold and silver, and your dress was of fine linen, and silk, and
embroidered cloth. You ate fine flour, and honey, and oil. And you were
exceedingly beautiful, and became fit for royalty. Eze 16:14 “And
your name went out among the nations because of your loveliness, for it was
perfect, by My splendour which I had put on you,” declares the Master יהוה.
Eze 16:15 “But you trusted in your own loveliness,
and whored because of your name, and poured out your whorings on everyone
passing by who would have it. Eze 16:16 “And you took some of your garments and made
multi-coloured high places for yourself, and whored on them – which should not
have come about, nor shall it be.
Jer
3:20 “But indeed as a wife betrays her husband, so have you betrayed Me,
O house of Yisra’ěl,” declares יהוה.
Eze
6:9 “And those of you who escape shall remember Me among the nations
where they have been taken captive, because I have been broken by their
adulterous heart which has turned away from Me, and by their eyes which whored
after their idols. And they shall loathe themselves for the evils which they
have done in all their abominations.
Jer
3:8 “And I saw that for all the causes for which backsliding Yisra’ěl 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.
This ‘’divorce’’ creates a dilemma - 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 uncoverednessa in her, and he shall write her a certificate
of divorce, and put it in her hand, and send her out of his house, Footnote:
aProof that she is not a maiden, indicating that she had previously been
fornicating. See also Mat_5:32 and Mat_19:9. 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.
YHVH pleads with Yisrael to return:
Jer 3:11 And יהוה said to me, “Backsliding Yisra’ěl has shown
herself more righteous than treacherous Yehuḏah.
Jer 3:12 “Go and proclaim these words toward the
north, and say, ‘Return, O backsliding Yisra’ěl,’ declares יהוה, ‘I shall not look on
you in displeasure, for I am lovingly-committed,’ declares יהוה, ’and I do not bear a
grudge forever. (Israel was no longer in the land they were dispersed)
Jer
3:13 Only, acknowledge your crookedness, because you have transgressed
against יהוה
your Elohim, and have scattered your ways to strangers under every green tree,
and you have not obeyed My voice,’ declares יהוה.
Jer
3:14 “Return, O backsliding children,” declares יהוה, “for I shall rule over you, and shall
take you, one from a city and two from a clan,a and shall bring you to Tsiyon.
Footnote: aSee Isa_27:12.
The only way for YHVH to take back His wayward bride was
for Him to die. But that would be impossible.
Rom
7:1 Or do
you not know, brothers – for I speak to those knowing the Torah – that the
Torah rules over a man as long as he lives?
Rom
7:2 For the married woman has been bound by Torah to the living husband,
but if the husband dies, she is released from the Torah concerning her
husband.
Rom
7:3 So then, while her husband lives, she shall be called an adulteress
if she becomes another man’s. But if her husband dies, she is free from that part
of the Torah, so that she is not an adulteress, having become another
man’s.
Rom
7:4 So my brothers, you also were put to death to the Torah through the
body of Messiah, for you to become another’s, the One who was raised from the
dead, that we should bear fruit to Elohim.
Rom
7:5 For when we were in the flesh, the passions of sins, through the
Torah, were working in our members to bear fruit to death.
Rom
7:6 But now we have been released from the Torah, (regarding our
dead husband)having died to
what we were held by, so that we should serve in newness of Spirit and not in
oldness of letter.
The
Law and Sin
Rom
7:7 What, then, shall we say? Is the Torah sin? Let it not be! However, I
did not know sin except through the Torah.
Col
2:12 having been buried with Him in immersion, in which you also were
raised with Him through the belief in the working of Elohim, who raised Him from
the dead. Col 2:13 And you, being dead in your trespasses[c] and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has
made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, Footnote: c Eph_2:1. Col
2:14 having blotted out that which was written by hand against us
(death because of adultery?)
– by the dogmas d – which stood against us. And He has taken
it out of the way, having nailed it to the stake. Footnote: dDogmas - also see Col_2:20
and Eph_2:15. Col 2:15 Having stripped the principalities and
the authorities, He made a public display of them, having prevailed over them
in it.
Eph
2:11 Therefore remember that you, once nations (scattered northern
Israel)c in the flesh, who
are called ‘the uncircumcision’ by what is called ‘the circumcision’ made in
the flesh by hands, Footnote: cSee 1Co_12:2.
Eph
2:12 that at that time you were without Messiah, excluded from the
citizenship of Yisra’ěl and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no
expectation and without Elohim in the world.
Eph
2:13 But now in Messiah יהושע you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood
of the Messiah.
The new covenant is not part of the dispensation of grace
– YHVH has always been graceful. Perhaps one of the biggest deceptions of the
church is ‘’dispensationalism’’ – law and grace.
Jer
31:31 “See, the days are coming,” declares יהוה, “when I shall make a renewed covenant with the house of
Yisra’ěl and with the house of Yehuḏah,a Footnote: a Heb_8:8-12, Heb_10:16-17. Jer
31:32 not like the covenant I made with their fathers in the day when I
strengthenedb their hand to bring them out of the land of Mitsrayim, My
covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them,” declares יהוה. Footnote: bCommonly
understood as “take hold of.” Jer 31:33 “For this is the covenant I
shall make with the house of Yisra’ěl after those days, declares יהוה: I shall put My Torah in
their inward parts, and write it on their hearts. And I shall be their Elohim,
and they shall be My people. Jer 31:34 “And no longer shall they
teach, each one his neighbour, and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know יהוה,’ for they shall all know
Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares יהוה. “For I shall forgive their
crookedness, and remember their sin no more.”
Mat
15:24 And He answering, said, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of
the house of Yisra’ěl.”d Footnote: dSee Mat_10:6.
It appears that YHVH never divorced Yahudah because of His
promise to David.
Psa
89:27 “I also appoint him first-born, Highest of the sovereigns of the
earth. Psa 89:28 “I guard My loving-commitment for him forever, And
My covenant is steadfast with him. Psa 89:29 “And I shall establish
his seed forever, And his throne as the days of the heavens. Psa
89:30 “If his sons forsake My Torah And do not walk in My
right-rulings, Psa 89:31 “If they profane My laws And do not guard
My commands, Psa 89:32 “Then I shall visit their transgression with
the rod, And their crookedness with flogging. Psa 89:33 “But My
loving-commitment I do not take away from him, Nor be false to My
trustworthiness. Psa 89:34 “I shall not profane My covenant, Neither
would I change what has gone out from My lips. Psa 89:35 “Once I
have sworn by My set-apartness, I do not lie to Dawiḏ:
Psa
89:36 “His seed shall be forever, And his throne as the sun before
Me;
Eze 37:19
say to them, ‘Thus said the Master יהוה, “See, I am taking the stick of Yosěph, which is in the hand of
Ephrayim, and the tribes of Yisra’ěl, his companions. And I shall give them
unto him, with the stick of Yehuḏah, and make them one stick, and they shall be
one in My hand.” ’ Eze 37:20 “And the sticks on which you write
shall be in your hand before their eyes. (Eph 2:14-19)
Rom
11:25 For I do not wish you to be ignorant of this secret, brothers, lest
you should be wise in your own estimation, that hardening in part has come over
Yisra’ěl, until the completeness of the nationsa has come in. Footnote: a Gen_48:19.
Joh
10:16 “And other sheep I have which are not of this fold – I have to
bring them as well, and they shall hear My voice, and there shall be one flock,
one shepherd.b Footnote: bSee also Joh_11:52, Eph_2:13-19, Isa_56:8,
Eze_34:23, Eze_37:24.
Our confirmation of this covenant is renewed during Passover/Pesach.
Mat
26:26 And as they were eating, יהושע took bread, and having blessed, broke and gave it to the taught
ones and said, “Take, eat, this is My body.” Mat 26:27 And taking
the cup, and giving thanks, He gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of
you. Mat 26:28 “For this is My blood, that of the renewed covenant,
which is shed for many for the forgiveness of sins. Mat 26:29 “But I
say to you, I shall certainly not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on
till that day when I drink it anew with you in the reign of My Father.”