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 covers two
issues – the cities of refuge and the inheritance of the daughters of Tzelophad.
The Cities of Refuge
were towns in the Kingdom of Yisrael and
Kingdom of Yahudah 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 the Hebrew mindset. 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 Hebraic 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
the Hebrew 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 labour. 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 others and the consequences would be
to flee to one these cities of refuge for protection and redemption or until
their guilt or innocence could be proved or atoned for.
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.
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 only 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 deliberately or
ignorantly sinned and deserve the death penalty.
We in our ignorance are
all guilty of the murder of the Messiah.
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 from judgment in Messiah from an eternal 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.”
YHVH has not given up on natural or the ingrafted ones of Israel.
Message paraphrasing-translation - 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 Israel 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.
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.)
(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
Traditionally at the end of each book of the Torah the following proclamation was made:
"Chazak,
chazak v’nitchazek! Be strong, be strong and may we be strengthened!"
“Chazak”, as with most Hebrew words has multiple meanings or connotations which perhaps helps us understand why call upon it three times.to be bound to, to be attached to, to support, to preserve, to strengthen, to have courage, to hold fast, to encourage, to retain / to keep, to prove helpful, to uphold