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.
Gen 30:12 And Lĕ’ah’s female servant Zilpah bore Yaʽaqoḇ a second son. Gen 30:13 And Lĕ’ah said, “I am blessed, for the
daughters shall call me blessed.” So she called his name Ashĕr. Gen 30:14 And Re’uḇĕn went in the days of wheat
harvest and found love-apples in the field, and brought them to his mother
Lĕ’ah. And Raḥĕl said to Lĕ’ah, “Please give me some of your son’s
love-apples.”
Photo of a ''Yakov sheep''
It appears common knowledge that ‘’love apples’’ or
in Hebrew ‘’dudaim’’ was some kind of aphrodisiac that enhanced ones libido.
Why then would Leah part with these ‘’love apples’’ and give them to her sister
in exchange for having her husband spend the night with her and not Rachel?
Gen
30:15 But she said to her, “Is it a
small matter that you have taken away my husband? Would you take away my son’s
love-apples too?” And Raḥĕl said, “Therefore let him lie with you tonight for
your son’s love-apples.” (Heb ‘’dudaim’’ See Song of Solomon 7:13- this issue
refers to an obscure unknown sexual secret between two lovers)
Scholars
believe that there was a significant breakthrough in Leah and Rachel’s
relationship at this stage. It was
shortly after this event that Rachel finally gives birth to her first-born
Yosef.
Could
this be a prophetic sign of the two houses of Yisrael /Yehudah and Ephraim
coming together in the last days?
‘’Jezebel’’
means ‘’not honoured by cohabitation.’’
Gen 30:16
And when Yaʽaqoḇ came out of the field in the evening, Lĕ’ah went out
to meet him and said, “Do come in to me, for indeed, I have hired you with my
son’s love-apples.”(used 5 times in three verse) And he lay with her that
night. Gen 30:17 And Elohim listened to
Lĕ’ah, and she conceived and bore Yaʽaqoḇ a fifth son. Gen 30:18 And Lĕ’ah said, “Elohim has given me my hire,
because I have given my female servant to my husband.” So she called his name
Yissasḵar. Gen 30:19 And Lĕ’ah
conceived again and bore Yaʽaqoḇ a sixth son. Gen 30:20 And Lĕ’ah said, “Elohim has presented me with
a good present. Now my husband is going
to dwell with me, (Heb ‘’zabal’’ used only once meaning ‘’honored’’) because
I have borne him six sons.” So she called his name Zeḇulun. (Heb – honoured) Gen
30:21 And afterward she bore a daughter,
and called her name Dinah.
Gen 30:22
And Elohim remembered Raḥĕl, and Elohim listened to her and opened her
womb. Gen 30:23 And she conceived, and
bore a son, and said, “Elohim has taken away my reproach.” Gen 30:24 So she called his name Yosĕph, and said, “יהוה has added to me another son.”
It is
also significant that the events of the Book of Rut take place during the wheat
harvest and are also read during Shavuot. Shavuot is about the giving of the Word
(Torah) and the ‘’Ruach ha Kodesh’’ Set apart Spirit. The Word and the Spirit are
in unity. The twelve tribes of Yisrael will only come together when there is a
joint expression and testimony of the unity of the Torah and the Ruach.
Gen
30:25 And it came to be, when Raḥĕl had
borne Yosĕph, that Yaʽaqoḇ said to Laḇan, “Send me on my way, to go to my own
place and to my land. Gen 30:26 “Give my
wives and my children for whom I have served you, and let me go, for you
yourself know my service which I have done for you.” Gen 30:27 And Laḇan said to him, “If I have found
favour in your eyes, please stay, for I have diligently watched that יהוה has blessed me
for your sake.” Gen 30:28 And he said,
“Name me your wages, and I give it.”
Gen
30:29 So he said to him, “You know how I
have served you and how your livestock has been with me. Gen 30:30 “For the little you had before I came has
increased greatly, and יהוה has blessed you since my coming. But now, when am I to provide
for my own house too?” Gen 30:31 And he
said, “What do I give you?” And Yaʽaqoḇ said, “Give me naught! If you do this
for me, I shall again feed and guard your flocks: Gen 30:32 “Let me pass through all your flock today,
removing from there all the speckled and spotted sheep, and all the black ones
among the lambs, and the spotted and speckled among the goats. And these shall
be my wages. Gen 30:33 “And my
righteousness shall answer for me in time to come, when you come concerning my
wages: every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and black
among the lambs, it is stolen if it is with me.” Gen 30:34 And Laḇan said, “See, let it be according to
your word!” Gen 30:35 And on that day he
set aside the male goats that were speckled and spotted, and all the female
goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had some white in it, and
all the black ones among the lambs, and gave them into the hand of his sons. Gen
30:36 And he put three days’ journey
between himself and Yaʽaqoḇ, and Yaʽaqoḇ fed the rest of Laḇan’s flocks. Gen
30:37 And Yaʽaqoḇ took for himself rods
of green poplar and of the almond and chestnut trees, peeled white strips in
them, and exposed the white which was in the rods. Gen 30:38 And he set the rods which he had peeled
before the flocks in the gutters, in the watering troughs where the flocks came
to drink, and they conceived when they came to drink.
Gen
30:39 So the flocks conceived before the
rods, and the flocks brought forth streaked, speckled, and spotted.
Gen
30:40 And Yaʽaqoḇ separated the lambs,
and made the flocks face toward the streaked and all the black in the flock of
Laḇan, but he put his own flocks by themselves and did not put them with
Laḇan’s flock. Gen 30:41 And it came to
be, whenever the strong ones of the flock conceived, that Yaʽaqoḇ placed the
rods before the eyes of the flock in the gutters, so they would conceive among
the rods. Gen 30:42 But when the flocks
were weak, he did not put them in, so the weak ones were Laḇan’s and the
strong ones Yaʽaqoḇ’s. Gen 30:43 Thus
the man increased very much, and had many flocks, and female and male servants,
and camels and donkeys. Gen 31:1 And he
heard the words of Laḇan’s
sons, saying, “Yaʽaqoḇ has taken away all that was our father’s, and from what
belonged to our father he has made all this wealth.” Gen 31:2 And Yaʽaqoḇ would look at the face of Laḇan
and see that it was not toward him as before.
It
is perhaps not a co-incidence that both the issues of cohabitation of the
spotted sheep and Yakov's wives are discussed together in this parashah.
What will Messiah’s end time flock look like?
Summary of Judah (Hebrew is Yahudah and
that is his name) -
Chp 1 - Yahudah, the fourth son of Yakov and Leah.
He is the giant, athlete, warrior; he recounts heroic deeds. He runs so fast
that he can outstrip a hind. THE copy of the words of Yahudah, what things he
spake to his sons before he died. 2 They gathered themselves together,
therefore, and came to him, and he said to them: Hearken, my children, to Yahudah
your father.
Chp 2 - AND
eighteen years my father abode in peace with his brother Esav, and his sons
with us, after that we came from Mesopotamia, from Lavan. 2 And when eighteen years
were fulfilled, in the fortieth year of my life, Esav, the brother of my
father, came upon us with a mighty and strong people. 3 And Yakov smote Esav
with an arrow, and he was taken up wounded on Mount Seir, and as he went he
died at Anoniram. 4 And we pursued after the sons of Esav. 22 And after these
things, while Tamar was a widow, she heard after two years that I was going up,
to shear my sheep, and adorned herself in bridal array, and sat in the city
Enaim by the gate.
23 For it was a law of the Amorites, that she who
was about to marry should sit in fornication seven days by the gate. 24
Therefore being drunk with wine, I did not recognize her; and her beauty
deceived me, through the fashion of her adorning. 25 And I turned aside to her,
and said: Let me go in unto thee. 26 And she said: What wilt thou give me? And
I gave her my staff, and my girdle, and the diadem of my kingdom in pledge. 27
And I went in unto her, and she conceived. 28 And not knowing what I had done,
I wished to slay her; but she privily sent my pledges, and put me to shame. 29
And when I called her, I heard also the secret words which I spoke when lying
with her in my drunkenness; and I could not slay her, because it was from YHVH.
30 For I said, Lest haply she did it in subtlety, having received the pledge
from another woman. 31 But I came not again near her while I lived, because I
had done this abomination in all Ysrael. 32 Moreover, they who were in the city
said there was no harlot in the gate, because she came from another place, and
sat for a while in the gate. 33 And I thought that no one knew that I had gone
in to her. 34 And after this we came into Mitsrayim/Egypt to Yoseph, because of
the famine. 35 And I was forty and six years old, and seventy and three years
lived I in Mitsrayim/Egypt.
Chp 3 - 12
For if a man drink wine to drunkenness, it disturbeth the mind with filthy
thoughts leading to fornication, and heateth the body to carnal union; and if
the occasion of the lust be present, he worketh the sin, and is not ashamed. 13 Such is the inebriated
man, my children; for he who is drunken reverenceth no man. 14 For, lo, it made
me also to err, so that I was not ashamed of the multitude in the city, in that
before the eyes of all I turned aside unto Tamar, and I wrought a great sin,
and I uncovered the covering of my sons' shame. After I had drunk wine I
reverenced not the commandment of Elohim, and I took a woman of Canaan to wife.
16 For much discretion needeth the man who drinketh wine, my children; and
herein is discretion in drinking wine, a man may drink so long as he preserveth
modesty. 19 For even though a man be a
king and commit fornication, he is stripped of his kingship by becoming the
slave of fornication, as I myself also suffered. 20 For I gave my staff,
that is, the stay of my tribe; and my girdle, that is, my power; and my diadem,
that is, the esteem of my kingdom. 21 And indeed I repented of these things;
wine and flesh I eat not until my old age, nor did I behold any joy. 22 And the
angel of YHVH showed me that for ever do women bear rule over king and beggar
alike. 23 And from the king they take away his esteem, and from the valiant man
his might, and from the beggar even that little which is the stay of his
poverty. 24 Observe, therefore, my children, the right limit in wine; for there
are in it four evil spirits--of lust, of hot desire, of profligacy, of filthy
lucre. 25 If ye drink wine in gladness, be ye modest in the fear of YHVH.
Chp 4 - AND
now, my children, I command you, love Levi, that ye may abide, and exalt not
yourselves against him, lest ye be utterly destroyed. 2 For to me YHVH gave the
kingdom, and to him the priesthood, and He set the kingdom beneath the
priesthood. 3 To me He gave the things upon the earth; to him the things in the
heavens.