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 – especially we who were once gentiles excluded from the citizenship of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise having no expectation and without Elohim- have now through the blood of Messiah have gained access into the covenants and have obtained citizenship into the commonwealth of Israel. Blessed are You, YHVH, Giver of the Torah and the Guardian of Israel.
This short Parashah contains a total of fifty-one instructions for a set apart people.
Our concept of “kedoshim”(or set apartness) does not define what is set apart. Only the Set Apart One Himself determines what is set apart to Himself and what is set apart to destruction – these instructions were meant to be engraved (chok)upon the hearts of them who YHVH has called to be set apart to Himself. The phrase “I am YHVH your Elohim” appears sixteen times in chapter nineteen alone! Chapter twenty sees another four uses of these phrases.
Paradoxically, ‘’Kodesh or kodeshah’’ can also mean a male or female who have ‘’set themselves apart’’ to prostitution and depravity – Speaking of His people Yisrael, YHVH says- Hos 4:12 ….. For a spirit of whorings has led them astray, and they went whoring from under their Elohim.
Note once again the positioning of chapter 19. Chapter 18 and 21 describe unthinkable sexual perversions. Perhaps we can learn from this that when men, especially religious men who change YHVH’s Torah, set themselves up for spiritual perversion and destruction – they prove themselves to be more disgusting than street prostitutes -
This week’s portion: קְדֹשִׁים תִּהְיוּ
Lev 19:1 And יהוה spoke to Mosheh, saying,
Lev 19:2 “Speak to all the congregation of the children of Yisra’ĕl, and say to them, ‘Be set-apart, for I יהוה your Elohim am set-apart.
ב דַּבֵּר אֶל-כָּל-עֲדַת בְּנֵי-יִשְׂרָאֵל, וְאָמַרְתָּ אֲלֵהֶם--קְדֹשִׁים תִּהְיוּ: כִּי קָדוֹשׁ, אֲנִי יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם.
Note the use of future tense – “tiheu” you shall become set apart, implying a progressive work of becoming set apart.
2Co 5:21
For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we
might become the righteousness of Elohim.
Gk – ‘’might become’’’’ – present passive plural verb.
The action of verb indicates an ongoing passive action happening to the person,
not an action he or she is initiating – an action that is yet to be completed.
Lev 19:3 ‘Each one
of you should fear (תיראו)his mother and
his father, and guard My Sabbaths. I am יהוה your Elohim.
Even Yahshua feared his Father-
Isa 11:2 The Spirit of יהוה shall rest upon Him – the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of יהוה, Isa 11:3 and shall make Him
breathe in the fear of יהוה. And He shall
not judge by the sight of His eyes, nor decide by the hearing of His
ears.
Lev 19:4 ‘Do not
turn to idols, and do not make for yourselves moulded mighty ones. I am יהוה your Elohim.
“Molded” suggests that false ideas have been carefully crafted
and developed in our minds and control our lives. A ‘’molded image’’ implies perverted
ideas about the truth of YHVH, His Son and His Word.
Talking about believers Paul says in 1Ti
4:1 But the Spirit distinctly says that in latter times some shall
fall away from the belief, paying attention to misleading spirits, and
teachings of demons, 1Ti 4:2 speaking lies in hypocrisy, having been
branded on their own conscience,
Lev 19:5 ‘And when
you bring a peace offering to יהוה, bring it for your acceptance.
Lev 19:6 ‘It is
eaten the same day you slaughter it, and on the next day. And that which is
left on the third day is burned with fire.
Lev 19:7 ‘So if it
is eaten at all on the third day, it is abominable, it is not accepted,
Lev 19:8 and he
who eats it bears his crookedness, because he has profaned the set-apart
offering of יהוה, and that
being shall be cut off from his people.
A reference to the season of Messianic redemption – we
have had 2000 years (2days) to make peace with YHVH through the Messiah- in the
third millennium (third day) when Messiah returns it’s too late.
Hos 6:1
‘Come, and let us turn back to יהוה. For He has
torn but He does heal us, He has stricken but He binds us up. Hos
6:2 After two days He shall revive us, on the third day He shall raise us
up, so that we live before Him.
Lev 19:9 ‘And when
you reap the harvest of your land, do not completely reap the corners of your
field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. (See Ruth 2 – Gentile bride)
Lev 19:10 ‘And do
not glean your vineyard or gather every grape of your vineyard, leave them for
the poor and the stranger. I am יהוה your Elohim.
Mat 23:23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites! Because you tithe the mint and the anise and the cumin, and have
neglected the weightier matters of the Torah: the right-ruling and the
compassion and the belief.[d][ These need to have been done, without neglecting
the others. Footnote: dThe wording in Luk_11:42 is somewhat different.
Lev 19:11 ‘Do not
steal, do not lie, do not deceive one another.
Lev 19:12 ‘And do
not swear falsely by My Name and so profane the Name of your Elohim. I am יהוה.
Lev 19:13 ‘Do not
oppress your neighbour or rob him. The wages of him who is hired is not
to remain with you all night until morning.
Lev 19:14 ‘Do not
curse (Heb ‘’’kalal’’ to diminish) the deaf or put a stumbling-block before the
blind, but fear your Elohim. I am יהוה.
Make disabled people feel special and protected – they
often feel inferior and even ‘’cursed’’ because of their disabilities. (Maybe
they can hear and see more than able bodied people)
Lev 19:15 ‘Do no
unrighteousness in right-ruling. Do not be partial to the poor or favour the face
of the great, but rightly rule your neighbour in righteousness. Deut 16:20 - צדק צדק
Lev 19:16 ‘Do not
go slandering among your people. Do not stand against the blood of your
neighbour. I am יהוה.
Heb “You shall not stand
on(upon) the blood of your neighbor.” This part of the verse is also difficult
to interpret. The rendering here suggests that one will not allow a neighbor to
be victimized, whether in court (cf. v. 15) or in any other situation (consider
the implications of the ‘’’threshold covenant’’)
Lev 19:17 ‘Do not
hate your brother in your heart. Reprove your neighbour, for certain, and bear
no sin because of him. See Matt 18:15-20
Lev 19:18 ‘Do not
take vengeance or bear a grudge against the children of your people. And you
shall love your neighbour as yourself. I am יהוה.
Lev 19:19 ‘Guard
My laws. Do not let your livestock mate with another kind. Do not sow your
field with mixed seed. And do not put a garment woven of two sorts of thread
upon you.
https://www.star-k.org/articles/articles/1227/the-mitzvah-of-shatnes/
The famous Rashi says that this is the “quintessential
chukim” (decree) for which no man knows the reason.
Maybe another great Hebrew sage – Shaul gives us some
insight in 2 Cor 6:14-18
2Co 6:14 Do not become unevenly yoked with
unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness and lawlessness? And what
fellowship has light with darkness?
2Co 6:15 And what agreement has Messiah with
Beliya‛al? Or what part does a believer have with an unbeliever?
2Co 6:16 And what union has the Dwelling Place of
Elohim with idols? For you are a Dwelling Place of the living Elohim, as Elohim
has said, “I shall dwell in them and walk among them, and I shall be their
Elohim, and they shall be My people.”[a] Lev_26:12 Footnote:
aSee also Exo_29:45, Lev_26:12, Jer_31:1, Eze_37:27.
2Co 6:17 Therefore, “Come out from among them
and be separate, says יהוה, and do not
touch what is unclean, and I shall receive you. Isa_52:11.
2Co 6:18 “And I shall be a Father to you, and
you shall be sons and daughters to Me, says יהוה the Almighty.” Isa_43:6, Hos_1:10.
Lev 19:20 ‘And
when a man has intercourse with a woman who is a female servant, engaged to a
man, and who has not at all been ransomed nor redeemed, there should be an
inquiry. But they are not put to death, because she was not free.
Lev 19:21 ‘And he
shall bring his guilt offering to יהוה, to the door of the Tent of Meeting, a ram
as a guilt offering.
Lev 19:22 ‘And the
priest shall make atonement for him with the ram of the guilt offering before יהוה for his sin which he has done. And the sin
which he has sinned shall be forgiven him.
Shifchah Charufah – The designated maidservant. (The end
time Hebrew roots restoration movement)
CLV In case a man who lies with a woman has an
emission of semen when she is a bondmaid designated for another man, yet has
not been ransomed, yea ransomed nor freedom given to her, a distinction shall
there be: they shall not be put to death since she was not freed.
The law of the Shifcha
Charufa,(Heb abused female servant) the designated maidservant, refers
to a non-Jewish slave woman owned by two partners. While she is slave, although
she must observe all the commandments that apply to Jewish women, she can
nevertheless not marry a Jew. Her master may allow her to cohabit with his
Jewish or non-Jewish slave to beget children, who in turn remain the owner’s
property. Were this woman to be freed from slavery she automatically becomes a
full proselyte and member of the Jewish people and may legally marry within the
nation. If, however, she was owned by two masters and only one selected to free
her, while the other chooses to maintain his ownership, she attains the ‘mixed’
status of half freed and half enslaved. The half of her which is now fully
‘Jewish’ may no longer cohabit with a non-Jewish slave, but can nevertheless
effect marriage with her fellow Jew. Her ‘slave half’ on the other hand is yet
incapable of becoming ‘married’ to a fellow Jew offering his hand in marriage.
In this scenario where a Jew proffers marriage to this ‘hybrid’, on the one
hand she is considered married while on the other hand she is still partially a
slave and unwed. Whereas normally a married woman who commits adultery is
punished by death, this woman who is not wholly wed to a Jew, when cohabiting with
a Jew other than her husband is punished with lashes. The male violator of her
relationship must only bring an Asham, a guilt-offering, where
the ‘Kohen shall provide him atonement... before G-d, for the sin that he
committed.’
This is a strange law (chok)
maybe one can make more sense of such decree when thinking of the slave woman
as the “gentile bride” who is “half slave and half free.”
She needs to be fully ransomed
and redeemed by her Jewish husband – Yahshua Ha Mashiach.
There must be other deeper
hidden truths around this commandment. Currently we are in a state of ‘’limbo’’
we are not as ‘’free’’ as we often claim to be, we await our Messiah to come
and take us as his bride and set us free from our ‘’religious masters’’.
Could the ‘’shifcha charufah’’
be the end time remnant who ushers in the Messiah?
Midrash Shifcha charufa – see
Parashat Yitro and Mishpatim - ‘’eved ivri’’ gematria 358.
Laws
About Slaves – ‘’When you bought a slave
you bought a master’’
Exo
21:1 “These are the
right-rulings which you are to set before them:
Exo 21:2 “When you buy a
Hebrew servant, he serves six years, and in the seventh he goes out free, for
naught.
Exo 21:3 “If he comes in
by himself, he goes out by himself; if he comes in married, then his wife shall
go out with him.
Exo 21:4 “If his master
has given him a wife, and she has borne him sons or daughters, the wife and her
children are her master’s, and he goes out by himself.
Exo 21:5 “And if the
servant truly says, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children, let me not go
out free,’
Exo 21:6 then his master
shall bring him before Elohim, and shall bring him to the door, or to the
doorpost, and his master shall pierce his ear with an awl. And he shall serve
him forever.
Exo 21:7 “And when a man
sells his daughter to be a female servant, she does not go out as the male
servants do.
Exo 21:8 “If she is
displeasing in the eyes of her master who has engaged her to himself, then he
shall let her be ransomed. He shall have no authority to sell her to a foreign
people, because of him deceiving her.
Exo 21:9 “And if he has
engaged her to his son, he is to do to her as is the right of daughters.
A chosen remnant bride has
been enslaved by both Judaism and Christianity. She received into her spirit a ‘’set
apart seed’’ 1Pe 1:23 having been
born again – not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible – through the living
Word of Elohim, which remains forever.
This was not acceptable to her
two religious masters so they ‘’whipped’’ her and demanded a guilt offering
from her ‘’redeemer lover” Messiah who himself became a guilt offering for her.
This ‘’divine romance’’ is the most beautiful and powerful love story known to
man. This is a parable.
The
Purpose of the Parables
Mat 13:10 And the taught
ones came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?”
Mat 13:11 And He
answering, said to them, “Because it has been given to you to know the secrets
of the reign of the heavens, but to them it has not been given.
2Co 2:14 But thanks be
to Elohim who always leads us on, to overcome in Messiah, and manifests through
us the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.
2Co 2:15 Because we are
to Elohim the fragrance of Messiah among those who are being saved and among
those who are perishing.
2Co 2:16 To the one we
are the smell of death to death, and to the other the fragrance of life to
life. And who is competent for these?
2Co 2:17 For we are not,
as so many, adulterating the Word of Elohim for gain – but as of
sincerity, but as from Elohim, in the sight of Elohim, we speak in
Messiah.
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, YHVH giver of the Torah – Amein.