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.
This Torah portion contains the instruction regarding
“sotah”.
Sotah comes from a word
which means to go astray.
“ The ceremony for the sotah, a suspected
adulteress who was witnessed going into seclusion with another man--despite
being warned not to associate with that individual. The woman is brought to the
Temple. This section of the Torah is written on parchment and then soaked in
water until the ink dissolves. The woman drinks the water. If she indeed
willingly committed adultery, her belly miraculously swells and she dies a
gruesome death. If she is unharmed by the waters, she is cleared of any
suspicion.”
The Mishnah has an entire tractate called the “sotah” and
contains many additional “halachic” directives for this Torah instruction.
However we find that our
Torah portion addresses this law as the “Torah of jealousy” and we must assume that
because it is only directed to the unfaithfulness of the woman that this law is
possibly referring to the greater issue of Israel’s unfaithfulness towards YHVH
and His Messiah.
Num 5:29 ‘This is
the Torah of jealousy, when a wife turns aside under her husband’s authority
(or towards another)and defiles herself,
The Torah of jealousy we shall see is very serious. If
you are suspected of unfaithfulness and it is tested according this Torah of
jealousy and you are found guilty. Your insides will rot away and you will be
barren. One of YHVH’s names is “Jealous.”
יד כִּי לֹא
תִשְׁתַּחֲוֶה, לְאֵל אַחֵר: כִּי יְהוָה קַנָּא שְׁמוֹ,
אֵל קַנָּא הוּא.
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14 For thou shalt bow down to no other el;
for YHVH, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous El;
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The danger by calling
this portion the “law of Sotah” instead of the “law of jealousy” is that we
fall into the danger of NOT realizing how jealous YHVH is towards those who
desire to be in covenant with Him. YHVH WILL NOT SHARE HIS BELOVED WITH ANY OF
THE IMMORAL DOCTRINES AND TEACHINGS OF CHRISTIANITY NOR JUDAISM.
Isa 53:6 We all, like sheep, went astray, each one of
us has turned to his own way. And יהוה has laid on
Him the crookedness of us all.
For me personally the
message of this Torah portion is that we must pray that we will not be called
to face the test of our unfaithfulness. We should pray and desire that YHVH’s Torah
be restored to us in the way Yahshua taught it to us that nothing may be found
in us (no strange seed) that will cause YHVH to be jealous – ‘Shema Yisrael ……’
Today many have exalted Yahshua above YHVH and even worshipped Yahshua above
YHVH – THIS IS MORE DANGEROUS THAN WE COULD EVER IMAGINE.
During the coming
great tribulation we may be all called upon to drink this water of testing by
Elohim who is extremely jealous. WILL WE PASS THE TEST????
We can take some
comfort that Yahshua has already drunk the bitter waters of YHVH’s jealousy on our behalf and has taught us through the
Torah what it is that makes YHVH jealous.
However this does not
exempt believers from having to face some painful and bitter realities of our
unfaithfulness in the coming tribulation.
Rev 10:9 And I went to the messenger and said to him,
“Give me the little book.” And he said to me, “Take and eat it,1 and
it shall make your stomach bitter, but it shall be as sweet as honey in your
mouth.” Footnote: 1Eze. chs. 2 & 3. This is a Hebraism which
means to receive knowledge. Rev 10:10
And I took the little book out of the messenger’s hand and ate it, and
it was as sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it, my stomach was
made bitter.
In these days we will discover that the truth of
YHVH is both sweet and bitter. It is sweet because we love truth. However truth
can also be bitter. Maybe there are many things we don’t want to hear and are
not ready to face because there are areas in our lives of unfaithfulness to His
Torah/covenant.
Pro 20:6 Most men will proclaim each his own goodness,
but a faithful man who can find?
2Ch 16:9 “For the eyes of יהוה diligently
search throughout all the earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those
whose heart is perfect(“shalem” – of keeping covenant..) to Him. You have acted
foolishly in this, so from now on you shall have battles.”
The sages provide a sobering reminder of the state of
Yisrael just before the Exodus out of Egypt and bondage. The Sages tell us that
the people had fallen into such a state of unfaithfulness that if they had not
been saved they would have completely assimilated into Mitsrayim/Egypt and the
nations and would have failed to be a set apart people any longer. What will the spiritual state be of an end
time generation preparing to leave the “bondage” of this world?
The rabbis could not
fully understand this instruction so they encouraged a woman charged of going
astray to repent and confess. However the Torah doesn’t seem to suggest this
possibility. Why?
As a possible end time
generation we may all have to face the reality of the consequences of our ongoing
unfaithfulness and disobedience to YHVH’s Torah and Covenant.
Our
Torah portion begins:
Num 5:11 And יהוה spoke to Mosheh, saying, Num 5:12 “Speak to the children of Yisra’ĕl, and say
to them, ‘When any man’s wife turns aside and has committed a trespass against
him, Num 5:13 and a man has intercourse
with her, and it is hidden from the eyes of her husband, and it is concealed
that she has defiled herself, and there was no witness against her, nor was she
caught, Num 5:14 and a spirit of
jealousy comes upon him and he becomes jealous of his wife who has defiled
herself, or a spirit of jealousy comes upon him and he becomes jealous of his
wife although she has not defiled herself, Num 5:15 then the man shall bring his wife to the
priest. And he shall bring the offering for her, one-tenth of an ĕphah of
barley flour. He is not to pour oil on it or put frankincense on it, because it
is a grain offering of jealousy, an offering for remembering, for bringing
crookedness to remembrance. Num 5:16
‘And the priest shall bring her near, and shall make her stand before יהוה.
Num 5:17 ‘And the
priest shall take set-apart water in an earthen vessel, and take some of the
dust that is on the floor of the Dwelling Place and put it into the water. Num
5:18 ‘And the priest shall make the
woman stand before יהוה, and shall uncover the woman’s head, and put the offering for
remembering in her hands, which is the grain offering of jealousy, while the
priest holds in his hand the bitter water that brings a curse. Num 5:19 ‘And the priest shall make her swear, and say
to the woman, “If no man has lain with you, and if you have not turned aside to
uncleanness under your husband’s authority, be free from this bitter
water that brings a curse.
Num 5:20 “But if
you have turned aside under your husband’s authority, and if you have
defiled yourself and some man other than your husband has lain with you” – Num
5:21 then the priest shall make the
woman swear with the oath of the curse, and he shall say to the woman – “יהוה make you a
curse and an oath among your people, when יהוה makes your
thigh waste away and your belly swell, Num 5:22
and this water that causes the curse shall go into your inward parts,
and make your belly swell and your thigh waste away.” And the woman shall say,
“Amĕn, amĕn.” Num 5:23 ‘And the priest
shall write these curses in a book, and shall wipe them off into the bitter
water,
Num 5:24 and shall
make the woman drink the bitter water that brings the curse, and the water that
brings the curse shall enter her to become bitter. Num 5:25 ‘And the priest shall take the grain offering
of jealousy from the woman’s hand, and shall wave the offering before יהוה, and bring it
to the altar. Num 5:26 ‘And the priest
shall take a hand filled with the offering, as its remembrance offering, and
burn it on the altar, and afterward make the woman drink the water. Num
5:27 ‘And when he has made her drink the
water, then it shall be, if she has defiled herself and has committed a
trespass against her husband, that the water that brings the curse shall enter
her and become bitter, and her belly shall swell, and her thigh shall waste
away, and the woman shall become a curse among her people. Num 5:28 ‘But if the woman has not defiled herself,
and is clean, then she shall be clear and shall conceive children.
Num 5:29 ‘This is
the Torah of jealousy, when a wife turns aside under her husband’s authority
and defiles herself, Num 5:30 or when a
spirit of jealousy comes upon a man, and he becomes jealous of his wife. Then
he shall make the woman stand before יהוה, and the
priest shall do to her all this Torah. Num 5:31
‘And the man shall be clear from crookedness, but the woman bear her
crookedness.’ ”
Midrash:
We are reminded that in this portion the unfaithful woman
actually received seed from another man. The question for us today is how much
impure and mixed seed are we receiving? The evidence is found everywhere – barrenness.
The tragedy is that many cannot see their spiritual barrenness.
1Pe 1:22 Now that you have cleansed your lives in
obeying the truth through the Spirit to unfeigned brotherly love, love one
another fervently with a clean heart, 1Pe 1:23
having been born again – not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible –
through the living Word of Elohim, which remains forever,
Psa
119:142 Your righteousness is
righteousness forever, And Your Torah is truth. When we walk in the Torah the
way Yahshua teaches us, we are cleansed and learn to discern what “seed” to
receive and what “seed” to reject.
May YHVH
prepare us to be an end time bride that will receive only the “seed” of our
Bridegroom – Yahshua.
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