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.)
two issues – the cities of
refuge and the inheritance of the daughters of Tzelophad.
The Cities of Refuge were towns in the Kingdom of Israel and Kingdom of Judah in which the perpetrators of manslaughter could claim the right of asylum; outside of these cities, blood vengeance against such perpetrators was allowed by law. The Torah names just six cities as being cities of refuge: Golan, Ramoth, and Bosor, on the east of the Jordan River, and Kedesh, Shechem, and Hebron on the western side.
The concept of a prison
system appears nowhere in Judaism. Indeed, while sentencing options as diverse
as financial penalties, atonement offerings, corporal punishment, capital
punishment and even death directly by the hand of YHVH are found in the Torah,
the punishment of "incarceration" as we know it is nowhere to be
found in traditional Torah-based Jewish law. Today it is estimated that there
are more than 10 million prisoners worldwide and our societies seem to be less
safe than ever before.
That is not to say that
Jewish law did not condone restrictions on liberty. The Scripture itself
provides for servitude (involuntary, imposed by the court), as a reparative
form of incarceration. Under certain circumstances, the court could order that
a perpetrator who caused another party loss and could not repay his debt or was
found guilty of theft be "sold" for a period of time (not to exceed
six years) in order to raise the funds necessary to make restitution. Yet such
court-imposed servitude could not degenerate into cruel slave labor. The
"bondsman" was entitled by law to good nutrition, proper clothing,
productive work and food and shelter for his wife and children. Restitution,
not punishment, was the goal.
Let us consider a spiritual application
concerning cities of refuge - Charles Spurgeon.
"The
manslayer left his house, his wife, his children, everything, to flee away to
the city of refuge. That is just what a man does when he resolves to be saved
by grace: he leaves everything he calls his own, renounces all the rights and
privileges which he thought he possessed by nature; yea, he confesses to having
lost his own natural right to live, and he flees for life to the grace of YHVH
in Yahshua. The manslayer had no right to live except that he was in the city
of refuge, no right to anything except that he was YHVH’s guest within those
enclosing walls. And so we relinquish, heartily and thoroughly, once and
forever, all ideas arising out of our supposed merits; we hasten away from self
that Messiah may be all in all to us. Fleeing for refuge implies that a man
flees from his sin. He sees it and
repents of it"
Our Torah portion for this week:
Num 35:9 And יהוה spoke to
Mosheh, saying,
Num 35:10 “Speak
to the children of Yisra’ĕl, and say to them, ‘When you pass over the Yardĕn
into the land of Kenaʽan,
Num 35:11 then you
shall choose cities to be cities of refuge for you, that the one who
accidentally killed someone shall flee there.
You shall appoint for yourselves
cities, cities of refuge (asylum) Heb “miklat” comes from another Hebrew word
“kalat” which means to be stunted, be handicapped, be deformed
(of a sacrificial animal lacking body parts). In other words, we may assume
that these cities may also have accommodated people who had caused some kind of
permanent harm on someone else and fled to one these cities of refuge for
protection or until their guilt or innocence could be proved.
Num 35:12 ‘And
they shall be cities of refuge for you from the revenger, and the one who
killed someone is not to die until he stands before the congregation in
right-ruling.
Num 35:13 ‘And of
the cities which you give, six are to be cities of refuge.
Num 35:14 ‘Give
three cities beyond the Yardĕn, and give three cities in the land of Kenaʽan, as
cities of refuge.
Num 35:15 ‘These
six cities are for refuge for the children of Yisra’ĕl, and for the sojourner, and for the settler in their midst, for anyone
who accidentally kills someone to flee there.
Num 35:16 ‘But if
he has smitten him with an instrument of iron, so that he dies, he is a
murderer. The murderer shall certainly be put to death.
Num 35:17 ‘And if
he has smitten him with a stone in the hand, by which one could die, and he
does die, he is a murderer. The murderer shall certainly be put to death.
Num 35:18 ‘Or if
he has smitten him with a wooden instrument that could kill, and he does die,
he is a murderer. The murderer shall certainly be put to death.
Num 35:19 ‘The
revenger of blood himself puts the murderer to death. When he meets him, he
puts him to death.
Num 35:20 ‘And if
he thrusts him through in hatred, or throws an object at him while lying
in wait, so that he dies,
Num 35:21 or in
enmity he smites him with his hand so that he dies, the one who smote him shall
certainly be put to death, for he is a murderer. The revenger of blood puts the
murderer to death when he meets him.
Num 35:22 ‘But if
he pushes him suddenly without enmity, or throws an object at him
without lying in wait,
Num 35:23 or uses
a stone, by which a man could die, throwing it at him without seeing him, so
that he dies, while he was not his enemy or seeking his harm,
Num 35:24 then the
congregation shall judge between him who killed someone and the revenger of
blood, according to these right-rulings.
Num 35:25 ‘And the
congregation shall rescue the one who killed someone from the hand of the
revenger of blood, and the congregation shall return him to the city of refuge
where he had fled, and he shall remain there until the death of the high priest
who was anointed with the set-apart oil.
The Talmud argues that the death of the high
priest formed an atonement, as the death of pious individuals counted as an atonement, Yoma 1:38b in the Jerusalem Talmud and in its view, the high priest was extremely
pious.
Talmud states that, in accordance with the
requirement to especially build roads to the cities of refuge, the roads to
these cities were not only marked by signposts saying "Refuge", but
the roads were 32 ells wide—twice the regulation width—and
were particularly smooth and even, in order that fugitives were as unhindered
as possible.
According to classical rabbinical authorities, the
cities of refuge were not places of protection, but places where atonement was
made.
Num 35:26 ‘But if
the one who killed someone at any time goes outside the limits of the city of
refuge where he fled,
Num 35:27 and the
revenger of blood finds him outside the limits of his city of refuge, and the
revenger of blood kills him who killed someone, he is not guilty of blood,
Num 35:28 because
he should have remained in his city of refuge until the death of the high
priest. But after the death of the high priest he who killed someone is to
return to the land of his possession.
Num 35:29 ‘And
these shall be for a law of right-ruling to you throughout your generations in
all your dwellings.
Num 35:30 ‘Whoever
kills someone has to be put to death as a murderer by the mouth of witnesses,
but only one witness does not bear witness against someone to die.
Num 35:31 ‘And
take no ransom for the life of a murderer who is guilty of death, but he shall
certainly be put to death.
Num 35:32 ‘And
take no ransom for him who has fled to his city of refuge to return to dwell in
the land before the death of the priest.
Num 35:33 ‘And do
not profane the land where you are, for blood profanes the land, and the land
is not pardoned for the blood that is shed on it, except by the blood of him
who shed it.
Num 35:34 ‘And do
not defile the land which you inhabit, in the midst of which I dwell, for I, יהוה, am dwelling in the midst of the children
of Yisra’ĕl.’ ”
How does the instruction of the cities of refuge apply to
us?
If the truth be told
YHVH could have killed all of us, because we all have sinned and deserve the
death penalty.
Heb
10:28 - Anyone who has disregarded the Torah of Mosheh dies without compassion
on the witness of two or three witnesses.
Cities of refuge remind
us of our own spiritual state and the actual danger we all face because of our
spiritual condition. Cities of refuge also remind us of how we have been given
sanctuary in Messiah from the death penalty. It is important that we remind
ourselves that while heaven and earth are still here not one law of the Torah
has been done away with – Matt 5:17-19.
Hos
13:9 “You have destroyed(Heb shichetcha-
ruined) yourself, O Yisra’ĕl, but your help is in Me –
Hebrew word for help comes from root word
“azar” which means to surround and protect.
Num 36:1 And the heads of the fathers of the clans of
the children of Gilʽaḏ, son of Maḵir, son of Menashsheh,
of the clans of the sons of Yosĕph, came near and spoke before Mosheh and
before the leaders, the heads of the fathers of the children of Yisra’ĕl,
Num 36:2 and
said, “יהוה commanded my
master to give the land as an inheritance by lot to the children of Yisra’ĕl,
and my master was commanded by יהוה to give the
inheritance of our brother Tselophḥaḏ to
his daughters.
Num 36:3 “Now if
they are married to any of the sons of the other tribes of the children of
Yisra’ĕl, then their inheritance shall be taken from the inheritance of our
fathers, and shall be added to the inheritance of the tribe into which they
marry, and taken from the lot of our inheritance.
Num 36:4 “And if
the Jubilee of the children of Yisra’ĕl takes place, then their inheritance
shall be added to the inheritance of the tribe into which they marry, and their
inheritance taken away from the inheritance of the tribe of our fathers.”
Num 36:5 And
Mosheh commanded the children of Yisra’ĕl according to the word of יהוה, saying, “What the tribe of the sons of
Yosĕph speaks is right.
Num 36:6 “This is
the word which יהוה has commanded,
for the daughters of Tselophḥaḏ, saying, ‘Let them marry who is good in their eyes, but
let them marry only within the clan of their father’s tribe.’
Num 36:7 “And the
inheritance of the children of Yisra’ĕl is not to change hands from tribe to
tribe, for every one of the children of Yisra’ĕl is to cling to the inheritance
of the tribe of his fathers.
Num 36:8 “And
every daughter possessing an inheritance in any tribe of the children of
Yisra’ĕl is to be the wife of one of the clan of her father’s tribe, so that
the children of Yisra’ĕl possess each the inheritance of his fathers.
Num 36:9 “Thus the
inheritance is not to change hands from one tribe to another, but every tribe
of the children of Yisra’ĕl is to cling to its own inheritance.”
Num 36:10 As יהוה commanded Mosheh, so did the daughters of
Tselophḥaḏ.
Num 36:11 For Maḥlah,
Tirtsah, and Ḥoḡlah, and Milkah, and Noʽah,
the daughters of Tselophḥaḏ, were married to the sons of their father’s brothers.
Num 36:12 And they
were married into the clans of the children of Menashsheh, the son of Yosĕph,
and their inheritance remained in the tribe of their father’s clan.
Num 36:13 These
are the commands and the right-rulings which יהוה commanded the
children of Yisra’ĕl by the hand of Mosheh in the desert plains of Mo’aḇ by
the Yardĕn of Yeriḥo.
The daughters of Zelophehad could be compared to a type
of end time bride of Messiah:
“Machla” means afflicted, “Noah”
means "wandering", Milcah means "queen", Tirzah
means "pleasing", Hoglah can possibly mean celebrating or
dancing, because the first part of her name is “Chag.”
Etymology of the name “Hoglah”
“The name Hoglah is ascribed to an unused root חגל , which occurs in Arabic with the meaning of to
hobble or hop. The Arabic derived noun means partridge, so scholars conclude
that the Hebrew name Hoglah does the same. There's nothing in the vocabulary of
the Scriptures that comes close to the name “Hoglah.”
Could the meaning of
these combined names be a hidden reference to the five wise virgins in the
parable of the ten virgins – Matt 25?
“ The afflicted
bride, weary from her wonderings will be crowned queen because she is pleasing
to her king Messiah. She will dance and celebrate with her Messiah king at the
marriage feast of the Lamb.”
(Out of The Message: remember it is a paraphrasing Version of Scriptre):
Rom 11 1-2 Does this mean, then, that YHVH is so fed up with Israel that he’ll have
nothing more to do with them? Hardly. Remember that I, the one writing these
things, am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham out of the tribe of Benjamin.
You can’t get much more Semitic than that! So we’re not talking about
repudiation. YHVH has been too long involved with Israel, has too much
invested, to simply wash his hands of them.
2-6 Do you remember that time Elijah was agonizing over this same Yisrael
and cried out in prayer?
YHVH, they murdered your prophets, They trashed your altars; I’m the
only one left and now they’re after me! And do you remember YHVH’s answer? I still have seven thousand who haven’t
quit,
Seven thousand who are loyal to the finish.
Seven thousand who are loyal to the finish.
It’s the same
today. There’s a fiercely loyal minority still—not many, perhaps, but probably
more than you think. They’re holding on, not because of what they think they’re
going to get out of it, but because they’re convinced of YHVH’s grace and
purpose in choosing them. If they were only thinking of their own immediate
self-interest, they would have left long ago.
11-12 The next question is, “Are they down for the count? Are they out of this for good?” And the answer is a clear-cut No. Ironically when they walked out, they left the door open and the outsiders walked in. But the next thing you know, the Jews were starting to wonder if perhaps they had walked out on a good thing. Now, if their leaving triggered this worldwide coming of non-Jewish outsiders to YHVH’s kingdom, just imagine the effect of their coming back! What a homecoming!
13-15 But I don’t want to go on about them. It’s you, the outsiders, that I’m concerned with now. Because my personal assignment is focused on the so-called outsiders, I make as much of this as I can when I’m among my Israelite kin, the so-called insiders, hoping they’ll realize what they’re missing and want to get in on what YHVH is doing. If their falling out initiated this worldwide coming together, their recovery is going to set off something even better: mass homecoming! If the first thing the Jews did, even though it was wrong for them, turned out for your good, just think what’s going to happen when they get it right! (Message Translation.)
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