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 )
Jos 1:16 And they answered Yehoshua, saying, “All
that you have commanded us we do, and wherever you send us we go.
Jos 1:17 “According to all that we obeyed Mosheh,
so we obey you. Only, let יהוה your Elohim be with you, as He was with Mosheh.
Jos 1:18 “Whoever rebels against your mouth and
does not obey your words, in all that you command him, is put to death. Only be
strong and courageous.”
Mar
14:10 And Yehuḏah from Qerioth, one of the twelve, went to the chief
priests to deliver Him up to them.
Mar
14:11 And when they heard it, they were glad, and promised to give him
silver. And he was seeking how to deliver Him up, conveniently.
It is fitting to introduce ‘’Judas’’ to this Torah
portion. In Hebrew we understand his name to mean: ‘’Yehudah’’ because he was
from the tribe of ‘’Yehudah’’ the word ‘’Iscariot’’ comes from two Hebrew words
‘’ish’’ meaning ‘’man’’ and ‘’kriot’’ (root Kuph, reish and hey) meaning to
‘’befall or impose’’ thus ‘’Judas’’ was a man who could get things done. This may sound noble, but it has been the bane
of YHVH’s people. And so religious man continues to believe in their own
abilities, ways and customs as means to establish YHVH’s will on earth. Man is
still building his ‘’golden calf’s’’
The noun bane refers to anything that is
a cause of harm, ruin, or death. The source of this word is Middle and Old
English ‘’bana’’, meaning "destroyer, murderer."
‘’Deception is the most violent form of brutality because
one who is deceived destroys themselves on an instalment plan and resents any
interference from those who would like to help them.’’
Jer
17:9 “The heart is crooked[a] above all,
and desperately sick – who shall know it? Footnote: a Jer_7:24, Jer_16:12,
Jer_18:12, Jer_23:17.
Deu 9:1 “Hear, O Yisra’ěl: You are passing
over the Yarděn today, to go in to dispossess nations greater and
stronger than yourself, cities great and walled up to the heavens,
Deu 9:2 a people great and tall, the descendants of
the Anaqim, whom you know, and of whom you heard it said, ‘Who does stand
before the descendants of Anaq?’ (Giants)
Deu 9:3 “And you shall know today that יהוה
your Elohim is He who is passing over before you as a consuming fire – He does
destroy them and subdue them before you. So you shall dispossess them and
destroy them quickly, as יהוה has said to you.
There is an attitude and mind in those who hate YHVH’s
people and His Torah that will never, never change. The only way we are
instructed to deal with such a people is to completely destroy them. The test
for the remnant in the last days will be if they have a heart to distance
themselves and destroy all Torahlessness. The distinguishing characteristic of
this remnant will be not to make any claim to their own righteousness nor to
build any ‘’golden calf’’ as a memorial to their deliverance. This remnant will
have a heart to only want to please, serve and obey their Creator and His sent One.
Deu 9:4 “Do not think in your heart, after יהוה
your Elohim has driven them out before you, saying, ‘Because of my
righteousness יהוה has brought me in to possess this land.’ But it is because of
the wrong of these nations that יהוה is driving them out from before you.
Deu 9:5 “It is not because of your righteousness or
the uprightness of your heart that you go in to possess their land, but because
of the wrong of these nations that יהוה your Elohim drives them out from before
you, in order to establish the word which יהוה swore to your fathers, to Aḇraham, to Yitsḥaq,
and to Ya‛aqoḇ.
Deu 9:6 “And you shall know that יהוה your Elohim is not
giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are
a stiff-necked people.
Deu 9:7 “Remember, do not forget how you provoked
to wrath יהוה your Elohim in the wilderness. From the day that you came out
of the land of Mitsrayim until you came to this place, you have been rebellious
against יהוה.
Deu 9:8 “Even in Ḥorěḇ you made יהוה wroth, so that יהוה
was enraged with you, to destroy you.
Deu 9:9 “When I went up into the mountain to
receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant which יהוה made with you, then I
stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I did not eat bread nor did
I drink water.
Deu 9:10 “Then יהוה gave me the two tablets of stone written
with the finger of Elohim, and on them were all the Words which יהוה had spoken to you on
the mountain from the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly.
Deu 9:11 “And it came to be, at the end of forty
days and forty nights, that יהוה gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the
covenant.
Deu 9:12 “Then יהוה said to me, ‘Arise, go down quickly from
here, for your people whom you brought out of Mitsrayim have acted corruptly.
They have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them, they have
made themselves a moulded image.’
The Golden Calf – Ex 32:4 see also Parashat 35 ‘’Naso’’
– ‘’Sotah’’ – ‘’The Errant Wife’’ Num 5:11-31
Deu 9:13 “And יהוה spoke to me, saying, ‘I have seen this
people, and look, they are a stiff-necked people.
Deu 9:14 Leave Me alone, so that I destroy them and
blot out their name from under the heavens, and make of you a nation stronger
and greater than they.’
Deu 9:15 “So I turned and came down from the
mountain, and the mountain burned with fire. And the two tablets of the
covenant were in my two hands.
Deu 9:16 “And I looked and saw that you had sinned
against יהוה
your Elohim, and had made for yourselves a moulded calf! You had quickly turned
aside from the way which יהוה had commanded you.
Deu 9:17 “And I took the two tablets and threw them
out of my two hands and broke them before your eyes,
Deu 9:18 “and I fell down before יהוה, as at the first,
forty days and forty nights. I did not eat bread and I did not drink water,
because of all your sins which you committed in doing evil in the eyes of יהוה,
to provoke Him.
Deu 9:19 “For I was afraid of the displeasure and
rage with which יהוה was wroth with you, to destroy you. But יהוה listened to me that time once more.
Deu 9:20 “And יהוה was very enraged with Aharon, to destroy
him, so I prayed for Aharon at that time also.
Deu 9:21 “And I took your sin, the calf
which you had made, and burned it with fire and crushed it and ground it very
small, until it was as fine as dust. And I threw its dust into the stream that
came down from the mountain.
Deu 9:22 “And at Taḇ‛ěrah and at Massah and at Qiḇroth
Hatta’awah you made יהוה wroth.
Deu 9:23 “And when יהוה sent you from Qaḏěsh Barněa, saying, ‘Go
up and possess the land which I have given you,’ then you rebelled against the
mouth of יהוה your Elohim, and you neither trusted Him nor listened to His
voice.
Deu 9:24 “You have been rebellious against יהוה
from the day that I knew you.
Deu 9:25 “So I fell down before יהוה the forty days and
forty nights, for I fell down because יהוה had said He would destroy you.
Deu 9:26 “And I prayed to יהוה, and said, ‘O Master יהוה, do not destroy Your
people and Your inheritance whom You have ransomed in Your greatness, whom You
have brought out of Mitsrayim with a strong hand.
Deu 9:27 Remember Your servants, Aḇraham, Yitsḥaq,
and Ya‛aqoḇ. Do not look on the stubbornness of this people, or on their wrong
or on their sin,
Deu 9:28 lest the land from which You brought us
should say, “Because יהוה was not able to bring them to the land which He promised them,
and because He hated them, He has brought them out to kill them in the
wilderness.”
Deu 9:29 And they are Your people and Your
inheritance, whom You brought out by Your great power and by Your outstretched
arm.’
Jubilees 23:26-
And in those days the children shall begin to study the laws, And
to seek the commandments, And to return to the path of righteousness.
Enoch 99:2 - 2. Woe to them who pervert the words of
uprightness, And transgress the eternal law, And transform themselves into what
they were not [into sinners]: They shall be trodden under foot upon the earth.
Jas
1:25 But he that looked into the perfect Torah, that of freedom,[d] and continues in it, not becoming a hearer
that forgets, but a doer of work, this one shall be blessed in his doing of
the Torah. Footnote: dSee Jas_2:12.
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).