Blessed are You, Yahveh our Elohim, King of the universe, who has made us set apart through His commandments and commanded us to actively study Torah. Please Yahveh, 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, Yahveh, Who teaches Torah to His people Israel. Blessed are You, Yahveh our Elohim, King of the universe, Who chose us from all the nations and gave us the Torah. Blessed are You, Yahveh, Giver of the Torah.
Laws for Cleansing Houses
ונתתי נגע- ‘’ I will give you an affliction’’ Does YHVH actually ‘’strike people with this affliction? YHVH doesn’t strike everyone, only a few with ‘’tzra at’’. How does one explain this?
Lev 14:33 And יהוה spoke to Mosheh and to Aharon, saying,
Lev 14:34 “When you come into the
land of Kena‛an, which I am giving you as a possession, and I put a plague (ונתתי נגע) of leprosy in a house in
the land of your possession,
Lev 14:35 then shall the one who owns the house come and inform the priest, saying, ‘It seems to me that there is some plague (Heb ‘’negah’’)in the house.’
YHVH ‘’gives’’ or puts this affliction on certain people, certain objects and even in houses? This is a difficult matter to understand or even identify in modern times.
Lev 14:36 “And the priest shall
command, and they shall empty the house, before the priest goes in to look at
the plague, so that all that is in the house is not made unclean. And after
that the priest goes in to look at the house.
Lev 14:37 “And he shall look at
the plague and see, if the plague is on the walls of the house with sunken
places, greenish or reddish, which appear to be deep in the wall,
Lev 14:38 then the priest shall go out of the house, to the door of the house, and shut up the house seven days.
This is very unusual and it is very difficult to find a scientific explanation for such a phenomena.
Lev 14:39 “And the priest shall
come again on the seventh day and look and see, if the plague has spread on the
walls of the house,
Lev 14:40 then the priest shall
command, and they shall remove the stones with the plague in them, and they
shall throw them outside the city, into an unclean place,
Lev 14:41 while he lets the house
be scraped inside, all around, and the dust that they scrape off they shall
pour out in an unclean place outside the city.
Lev 14:42 “And they shall take
other stones and put them in the place of those stones, and take other mortar
and plaster the house.
Lev 14:43 “And if the plague comes
back and breaks bitter out in the house, after he has removed the stones, after
he has scraped the house, and after it is plastered,
Lev 14:44 then the priest shall come and look and see, if the plague has spread in the house, it is an active leprosy (צרעת ממארת) or(painful/ affliction) in the house, it is unclean.
Why and how would ‘’tzra at’’ spread on
the walls of a house?
Why would such a contagion be painful or bitter? It sounds like a haunted house.
Lev 14:45 “And he shall break down
the house, its stones, and its timber, and all the plaster of the house, and he
shall bring them outside the city to an unclean place.
Lev 14:46 “And he who goes into
the house, all the days while it is shut up, becomes unclean until
evening.
Lev 14:47 “And he who lies down in
the house has to wash his garments, and he who eats in the house has to wash
his garments.
Lev 14:48 “However, if the priest
indeed comes in and looks at it and sees that the plague has not spread in the
house after the house was plastered, then the priest shall pronounce the house
clean, because the plague is healed. (נרפא הנגע׃) ie you can only receive the healing you
can not produce it
Lev 14:49 “And to cleanse the
house, he shall take two birds, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop. (a
reminder once again that must rely on an outside Source for healing)
Lev 14:50 “And he shall slay one
of the birds in an earthen vessel over running water,
Lev 14:51 and he shall take the
cedar wood, and the hyssop, and the scarlet, and the live bird, and dip them in
the blood of the slain bird and in the running water, and shall sprinkle the
house seven times.
Lev 14:52 “He shall thus cleanse
the house with the blood of the bird and the running water and the live bird,
and with the cedar wood, and with the hyssop, and with the scarlet,
Lev 14:53 and he shall let the
live bird loose outside the city in the open field, and shall make atonement
for the house, and it shall be clean.
Lev 14:54 “This is the Torah for
any infection of leprosy, and eruption,
Lev 14:55 and for leprosy of a
garment, and of a house,
Lev 14:56 and for a swelling, and
for a scab, and for a bright spot,
Lev 14:57 to teach when it is unclean and when it is clean. This is the Torah of leprosy.”
How does one understand this highly unusual phenomena? Are these houses haunted by some demonic spirit?
Let us seek some explanation for this phenomenon.
1. It appears in houses in the promised land only – Lev 14:34 “When you come into the land of Kena‛an, which I am giving you as a possession, and I put a plague (ונתתי נגע) of leprosy in a house in the land of your possession,
2.
If this phenomena comes from
the Hand of YHVH – it must be good - Jas 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above,
coming down from the Father of lights.
Heb 12:6 for whom יהוה loves, He disciplines, and flogs (Gk ‘’mastegoi) every son whom He receives.” Pro_3:11-12 and Joh 19:1 Then, therefore, Pilate took יהושע and flogged (Gk ‘’mastegoi’’)Him. (Most modern religion ignores this truth)
3.
The
Hebrew home and family life was meant to be the most important place of learning
and healing.
Deu
6:4 “Hear, O Yisra’ěl: יהוה our
Elohim, יהוה is one! Deu
6:5 “And you shall love יהוה your
Elohim with all your heart, and with all your being, and with all your
might. Deu 6:6 “And these Words[a] which I am commanding you today
shall be in your heart, Footnote: aSee footnote at Deu_5:22. Deu
6:7 and you shall impress (ושׁננתם or pierce) them upon your children, and
shall speak of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way,
and when you lie down, and when you rise up, Deu 6:8 and shall bind
them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your
eyes. Deu 6:9 “And you shall write them on the doorposts of your
house and on your gates.
Deu 6:10 “And it shall be, when יהוה your Elohim brings you into the land of
which He swore to your fathers, to Aḇraham, to Yitsḥaq, and to Ya‛aqoḇ, to give
you great and good cities which you did not build, Deu 6:11 and
houses filled with all kinds of goods, which you did not fill, and wells dug
which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant, and
you shall eat and be satisfied
Deu
6:12 be on guard, lest you forget יהוה who brought you out of the land of
Mitsrayim, from the house of bondage.
It would be
in the home you learned about Sabbath, the appointments of YHVH, the 10
sayings, about respect and how to raise a righteous Israelite family. The sons
and daughters would learn to work with their hands and to help establish a
family business.
Sadly, this
reality is missing in many modern- day households. The devastation is evident
in single parent homes and dysfunctional families abound. How many families sit
down together to enjoy family meals?
Praise YHVH
He is busy restoring His family and will continue to do so in the Messianic kingdom
and even beyond in the ‘’eighth day’’ where even the gates of the New Jerusalem
are named after Yakov’s 12 sons. Yakov’s dysfunctional family will be fully
restored and will be the model family to follow in the restoration of all
things.
Yahshua himself is returning for his bride and will present his family perfect to YHVH at the appointed time - Joh 14:1 “Let not your heart be troubled. Believe in Elohim, believe also in Me. Joh 14:2 “In My Father’s house are many staying places. And if not, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. Joh 14:3 “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I shall come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, you might be too. Joh 14:4 “And where I go you know, and the way you know.”
This past week a giant ‘’Chanukiah’’ with electric lights was erected in Gaza. ‘’Chanukah’’ means ‘’dedication’’ it was about the dedication of the Temple altar and a return of the Temple service.
Today the ‘’family altar’’ is the family table where we share kosher meals with family members, guests and sometimes even strangers.
What make this ‘’obscure’’ teaching of the ‘’metzora’’ so amazing, is that it is very clearly the teaching or the doctrine of Messiah.
Isa 53:1 Who has believed our report? (שׁמוּעה) And to whom was the arm of יהוה revealed?
שׁמוּעה Strongs – 8052 – ‘’something heard, that is, an announcement: - bruit, doctrine, fame, mentioned, news, report, rumor, tidings.’’
Isa
53:2 For He grew up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of
dry ground. He has no form or splendour that we should look upon Him, nor
appearance that we should desire Him – Isa 53:3 despised and
rejected by men, a man of pains and knowing sickness. And as one from whom the
face is hidden, being despised, and we did not consider Him. Isa
53:4 Truly, He has borne our sicknesses and carried our pains. Yet we
reckoned Him smitten·, stricken by Elohim, and afflicted. Isa 53:5
But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our
crookednesses. The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes
we are healed.
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. Isa 53:7
He was oppressed and He was afflicted, but He did not open His mouth. He was
led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
but He did not open His mouth. Isa 53:8 He was taken from prison and
from judgment. And as for His generation, who considered that He shall be cut
off from the land of the living? For the transgression of My people He was
stricken.Isa 53:9 And He was appointed a burial-site with the wrong, and
with the rich at His death, because He had done no violence, nor was deceit in
His mouth.a Footnote: a 1Pe_2:22. Isa 53:10 But יהוה was
pleased to crush Him, He laid sickness on Him, that when He made Himself an
offering for guilt, He would see a seed, He would prolong His days and the
pleasure of יהוה prosper in His hand. Isa 53:11 He would see the
result of the suffering of His life and be satisfied. Through His knowledge My
righteous Servant makes many righteous, and He bears their crookednesses.
Isa
53:12 Therefore I give Him a portion among the great, and He divides the
spoil with the strong, because He poured out His being unto death, and He was
counted with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made
intercession for the transgressors.
Hebrew is a language comprised of roots – ‘’shoreshim’’
Each
3-letter root in the Hebrew language has six possible permutations. In all the
Hebrew language there are only seven 3-letter roots whose six permutations all
have meaning.
The
Six Permutations of Tzara
Let us
now explore the cycle of images created by the root of tzara'at--tzara
(tzadik, reish, ayin):
|
Root
|
Word |
Meaning
|
|
tzadik,
reish, ayin |
tzara
|
leprosy |
|
tzadik,
ayin, reish |
tza'ar
|
hardship,
pain |
|
reish,
ayin, tzadik |
ra'atz
|
to
smash |
|
reish,
tzadik, ayin |
ratza
|
to inflict
stripes (by whipping with a strap) |
|
ayin,
tzadik, reish |
atzar
|
to
halt or rule to prevent anarchic expansion |
|
ayin,
reish, tzadik |
aratz
|
to
respect (a tyrant) because of his power |
When a tzadik suffers, this does not at
all interfere with his faith in YHVH. The suffering even enhances his faith, as
he is happy with the knowledge that all that happens to him comes from YHVH and
is for his ultimate good. This is the origin of his ultimate healing for
himself as well as others.
According to the Talmud, prior to his
revelation, the Mashiach is a leper who sits at the gateway of Rome
(Western civilization). When this leper is healed, he will transform to the
revealed Mashiach.
The quintessential cure for this frustration and disease is the manifestation of the Mashiach, who will bring redemption to the entire world.
This all has a
profound application on us today as believers in Moshiach. One of the most
significant evidences that we are in Messiah is that we would have experienced
the pain of isolation due to our “infections.” We need to understand that as
long as our attitudes and behaviour defile others we ourselves are defiled and
need “cleansing and seperation.”
Many of us have
felt the pain of this separation for years and now we realize that this was not
for our punishment but for our cleansing and being able to serve as true
priests of YHVH. How can a priest
recognize and sympathize with an “infected” person if that priest himself has
not experienced the pain and separation caused by his incompleteness and
brokenness?
In the coming days of the great tribulation a “prepared priesthood” will be able to minister to those who realize that YHVH has to put his children under quarantine for seven days (seven years of tribulation) in order for them to be clean. The bride of Messiah will be without spot or wrinkle.
‘’The only disease discussed in the Torah that includes laws pertaining to its manifestation and cure is tzara'at. This renders tzara'at the archetypical, all-inclusive disease.’’
Thus the Talmud (Sanhedrin 98b) describes Moshiach as a metzora, signifying that the messianic age is a time in which evils that have infested the world and mankind rise to the surface, so that they can be decisively overcome and cured.
How many believers have understood and embraced and emulated the Messiah of the scriptures?
Luk 24:44 And He said to them, “These are the
words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all have to be
filled that were written in the Torah of Mosheh and the Prophets and the
Tehillim concerning Me.”
Luk 24:45 Then He opened their minds to
understand the Scriptures, Luk 24:46 and said to them, “Thus it
has been written, and so it was necessary for the Messiah to suffer and to rise
again from the dead the third day,
Luk 24:47 and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His Name to all nations, beginning at Yerushalayim. Luk 24:48 “And you are witnesses of these matters. Luk 24:49 “And see, I am sending the Promise of My Father upon you, but you are to remain in the city of Yerushalayim until you are clothed with power from on high.”[c] Footnote: c Act_1:4-8.
Blessed
are you YHVH, 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, Yahweh giver of the
Torah.
Ameni.