Apr 3, 2022 | Torah Portion
In one cryptic passage from the Talmud, the sages discuss different theories about the potential name of the Messiah. Several schools of disciples offer different opinions. Each one has a theory about what the name of the Messiah will be. After the Talmud offers the list of opinions, it presents an authoritative ruling of the sages. The Messiah will be called “the Leper of the House of Rabbi,” a strange name indeed for the promised Savior King:
And the rabbis say: “His name is The Leper … as it is said [in Isaiah 53:4], ‘Surely our sicknesses he himself bore and our sorrows he carried, yet we ourselves esteemed him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.’” (b.Sanhedrin 98b)
A word association between the leper and the suffering servant of Isaiah 53 involves the Hebrew verb nega which means to “smite.” The Torah refers to the condition of leprosy with the noun form of the same word which means plague, smiting, and affliction. The Talmud quotes Isaiah 53:4 where Isaiah uses the same word to describe the affliction of the suffering servant:
Surely our sicknesses (nagua) He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. (Isaiah 53:4)
On the basis of these associations, the sages referred to the suffering Messiah son of Joseph as “The Leper.” The Messiah son of Joseph carries the suffering of the exile and the punishment of the Jewish people like a leper carries his affliction.
The sages understood the verse to mean that Messiah took on the nation’s leprosy, not literally, but figuratively. The title “Leper Messiah” sounds like a deprecation, and it contradicts the Bible’s own description of the Messiah: “Behold, My servant will prosper, He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted” (Isaiah 52:13). The Bible indicates that the Messiah will be the wisest of all men, exalted above Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and even the angels. His stature will exceed that of all the great men and kings of the earth.
Therefore, Chassidic teaching concludes that the Talmud hints toward some deeper meaning when it refers to the Messiah as “The Leper.” It indicates that the redeemer suffers the agonies and afflictions of Israel’s exile. He impatiently waits for the final redemption when He can purify the nation, but until then, He personally suffers the pain of Israel’s leprous-like affliction, the agony of the ongoing exile.
For as long as the exile persists, the Messiah is called The Leper. He Himself is essentially pure and perfect. His affliction merely reflects the condition of exile. The “day of his purification” refers to the moment of the redemption, when Messiah will be revealed and His true person and righteousness will become manifest to all.
Metzorah – מצרע : “Leper” Torah : Leviticus 14:1-15:33 Haftarah : 2 Kings 7:3-20 Gospel : Luke 9:51-10:42
Mar 27, 2022 | Torah Portion
The name of the twenty-seventh reading from the Torah is Tazria (תַזְרִיעַ), which means “she conceived.” The name is derived from the words of Leviticus 12:2, where the LORD says to Moses, “When a woman [conceives] and bears a male child.” Leviticus 12 discusses the laws of purification after childbirth.
Speak to the sons of Israel, saying: “When a woman gives birth …” (Leviticus 12:2)
The birth of a child is a holy and wonderful thing. Every time a baby is born, the birthing brings to light a small incarnation. Every baby is an immortal soul housed in garments of flesh. A baby comes into the world in the image of God. Life springs forth from life.
In some cases, the miracle is more obvious than in others. A Christian acquaintance of my wife was having a baby when complications occurred. The baby was in the wrong position in the birth canal, and the doctors grew concerned. They listened carefully to the heart monitor as the birth progressed, but sadly, the fluttering heartbeat tapered off and stopped. An hour later, the baby girl was stillborn. The doctor set the lifeless body aside, and mother and father were crushed. In the midst of her tears, the mother saw the baby’s leg move. She pointed it out to the staff, but the doctors explained that these were simply reflexive muscle movements. A few moments later, the baby gasped, coughed, and gasped again. Suddenly the hospital staff went into an emergency frenzy as they began resuscitation of the little girl. The child is fine today.
Not every story has a happy ending like that. There are few things more sober and heartrending than a pregnancy that ends prematurely or a baby born into this world only to pass on to the next world. We can’t explain why things like that happen, but it is possible that some souls are so pure and burn so hot that they quickly return to the flame that first gave them life.
The laws of the Torah ensured that, in the days of the Tabernacle, the amazing miracle of birth would not be treated as something mundane. God cordoned off childbirth with holy laws that gave the new mother a special status. The sacrifices after childbirth remind us that the act of giving birth is itself a miraculous encounter with the Divine. It is not to be regarded as just ordinary life. Instead, the Torah grants the event sanctity and significance by requiring sacrifices. The new baby is a gift from God, and the mother naturally wants to reciprocate with a gift. She brings a burnt offering and a sin offering as her gifts to God, who blessed her with a child.
Mar 13, 2022 | Torah Portion
Peace offerings are the sacrifices that are shared by the worshipper and the priesthood. In Leviticus 7, the Torah reiterates the laws of the peace offerings, adding details about which parts of the animal are to be retained by the priesthood, who is fit to eat a peace offering, how quickly the meat has to be eaten and what to do if not all the meat is eaten by the deadline. A peace offering could be eaten by anyone, anywhere, so long as that person was in a state of ritual purity when he or she ate it.
The Torah lists several different types of peace offerings, including votive offerings brought in fulfillment of vows, freewill offerings and the thanksgiving offering. The Passover Lamb was also a type of peace offering.
Peace offerings, however, were never brought for sin. They do not atone or expiate. Instead, the peace offerings represent relationship, fellowship and peace between God and man. Eating of the peace offering was like eating from God's own table. When a person is not at peace with God, he has no peace. God is the absolute subject of reality, so to be at war with God is to be at war with reality.
Human beings often live unhappy lives as we flee from pain and pursue pleasure, trying to find comfort in the material world. A person does not realize that the reason for his constant angst is that he does not have peace with God. When a man does not have peace with God, he cannot have peace with himself or with others. He rages at those who tread on his dignity or offend his pride, and he justifies his own actions at the expense of relationships with his friends and family. He uses other people to try to prop up his fragile ego. He attempts to slake his thirsty soul with vices and to satisfy his fleshly appetites with indulgences, but all of it is useless.
Unless we have peace with God, there is no peace. “‘There is no peace for the wicked,' says the LORD” (Isaiah 48:22). The good news is that there can be peace with God. The Apostle Paul says, “While we were [still God's] enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son” (Romans 5:10). God wants peace with human beings more than human beings want peace with one another. That is why He gave His Son as a sacrifice—a peace offering between God and man.
How great is peace! Now I know that peace is the culmination of all things in this world; but how do I know that it is to be so in the World to Come? It is said, [in Isaiah 66:12], “Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river.” The Rabbis said, “Great is peace, seeing that when the King Messiah comes, he will publish peace, as it is said [in Isaiah 52:7], “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace.” (Leviticus Rabbah 9:9)
Tzav – צו : “Command” Torah : Leviticus 6:1-8:36 (6:8-8:36) Haftarah : Jeremiah 7:21-8:3; 9:22-23 Gospel : Luke 4-6
Mar 6, 2022 | Torah Portion
When discussing the levitical sacrifices, the Torah says, “all your offerings you shall offer salt” (Leviticus 2:13). The priesthood kept a pile of salt near the altar for this purpose. Unlike so many other rituals and ceremonial commandments, in this instance, the Torah explains the meaning of the symbolism, defining it as a covenant symbol: “the salt of the covenant of your God.”
The Torah coupled the commandment to salt the offerings along with the prohibition on leaven. Both rules helped avoid corruption and helped keep the holy things in an imperishable state. People in the ancient world used salt primarily as a preservative. In the days before chemical additives and refrigeration, heavy salting was the best means of preserving meat. Because the ancient world considered salt as a preservative, salt came to represent a state of permanence. The term “covenant of salt” indicates a covenant of perpetual obligation—an everlasting covenant relationship. Two other biblical passages refer to “salt covenants,” and both of the passages describe the salt covenant as everlasting and eternal:
A salt covenant with the Aaronic Priesthood: It is an everlasting covenant of salt before the LORD to you and your descendants with you. (Numbers 18:19)A salt covenant with the house of David: Do you not know that the LORD God of Israel gave the rule over Israel forever to David and his sons by a covenant of salt? (2 Chronicles 13:5)
The commandment to salt the sacrifices as a symbol of the salt covenant provides us with a key for unlocking the mystery of much of the sacrificial system. It provides a basis for interpreting the sacrifices as covenantal gestures. Salting of the offerings symbolizes the eternal nature of God’s covenant with Israel. If so, the offerings themselves must represent various aspects of that same covenant. Each korban and each function of worship within the Tabernacle will symbolize some characteristic of the covenant between God and Israel. In this sense, we can interpret the sacrificial services as dramatizations of the God’s covenant relationship with His people.
Traditional Jewish teaching says that every home is as a small temple. The table within the home corresponds to the altar. On every Sabbath and festival, we place bread and wine before the LORD on the table. We pronounce blessings over the cup and share the wine. We pronounce a blessing over the bread, salt it, break it, and share it. These simple covenant rites have survived over 3,000 years. By partaking in the cup and the bread on Sabbath and the festivals, we reenact a covenant remembrance that originated on the altar. We eat from the table of the LORD.
Vayikra – ×•×™×§×¨× : “And he called” Torah : Leviticus 1:1-5:19 Haftarah : Isaiah 43:21-44:23 Gospel : Mark 7:1-30
Feb 27, 2022 | Torah Portion
A sudden shout rose up through the assembly and all eyes turned to the mountain. The cloud, which had covered the top of the mountain those many days, began to descend, rolling and cascading down the mountainside like a sudden avalanche of vapor, mist, and smoke.
A panic spread through the people; a holy terror seized every heart. As if choreographed in advance, all Israel—every man, woman, and child—fell prostrate to the ground. A brilliant light emanated from the cloud as it dropped from the top of Mount Sinai. The peak of the mountain emerged visible, gleaming in the sun, for the first time in nine months. Without the towering cloud hovering over it, the mountain seemed small, humble, and insignificant after all. The LORD had left Sinai.
The cloud of glory settled onto the tent of meeting and the glory of the Most High filled the Sanctuary. Moses tried to enter, but he found he could not bear the weight of the glory. He was not able to enter the tent of meeting. God had come to dwell with His people; the Tabernacle was a success, but a fundamental problem with the entire Tabernacle concept emerged immediately.
Even if God can dwell among His people in a holy place, that does not mean that His people can draw near to him to enjoy communion or interaction with Him. God had taken up residence in the Tabernacle, but He appeared unapproachable. Even Moses, who was accustomed to standing upon Mount Sinai and basking in the glory of the presence of the LORD, could not enter.
The book of Exodus ends with the problem unresolved. The problem illustrates the classic theological paradox between the immanence of God and the transcendence of God. God is remote and inaccessible, and yet, at the same time, He is ever close and personal. The Tabernacle illustrated the paradox. On the one hand, the LORD moved into the midst of the camp of Israel, but on the other hand, no one could enter His presence.
The paradox between immanence and transcendence is also obvious in our sorry attempts to form a Christology to explain the divine nature of Messiah. Some explanations seem to be more theologically consistent than others, but aAny attempt at explaining how the infinite can occupy the finite necessarily involves an inversion in logic. The mystery of the Tabernacle is not less baffling than the mystery of God taking up residence within the Messiah.
The book of Exodus ends with a cliffhanger. It leaves the reader with the question, “How are the people supposed to approach God? How will they to come near to Him?”
Pekudei : פקודי – “Accounts” Torah : Exodus 38:21-40:38 Haftarah : I Kings 7:51-8:21 Gospel : John 6:1-71
Feb 6, 2022 | Torah Portion
God ordained a daily worship service in the Tabernacle called the continual burnt (tamid, תָּמִיד) offering. Every day, the priesthood offered two male lambs as burnt offerings for the daily service.
The continual burnt offering began each morning with a male lamb offered as a burnt offering (olah, עוֹלָה). The priests slaughtered a lamb and placed it on the fire of the altar as the first sacrifice of the day. The lamb burned on the fire all day—a continual burnt offering. The priests placed each subsequent sacrifice they made on top of the pyre on which the lamb was burning.
When the day’s service concluded and the priests had completed all the sacrifices for that day, they brought a second lamb. They slaughtered it as an olah and placed it on top of the remains of that day’s offerings, sandwiching the whole day’s services between the two lambs of the continual burnt offering. They left the second lamb on the altar to burn through the night. The next morning, the priests removed the ashes and slaughtered a lamb, placed it on the altar, and started the process all over again. In this way, a lamb remained continually burning on the altar before the LORD.
The continual burnt offering set a baseline pattern as the most basic and regular function of the Tabernacle and the Temple. The prayer services, the singing of psalms, the lighting of the menorah, and the burning of incense all occurred in conjunction with the continual offering. The two lambs of the continual burnt offering, offered at the set times of sacrifice, created the structure upon which the rest of the Temple services hung. To this day, the Jewish times of prayer correspond to the hours at which the continual burnt offering used to be made.
The continual burnt offering commemorated the offering made during the Exodus 24 covenant ceremony at Mount Sinai. It remained continually upon the altar as a permanent token of the covenant. Its blood, splashed daily against the altar, provided a constant reminder of the “blood of the covenant” that Moses applied to the altar and to the people at Mount Sinai.
John the Immerser alluded to the continual burnt offering when he identified Yeshua as “the Lamb of God” (John 1:29).
Why are there two lambs for the daily offering? Perhaps the two lambs allude to Messiah son of Joseph and Messiah son of David. Perhaps the two lambs of the continual burnt offering allude to the first and second coming of our Master Yeshua:
So Messiah also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him. (Hebrews 9:28)
Tetzaveh – תצוה : “You shall command” Torah : Exodus 27:20-30:10 Haftarah : Ezekiel 43:10-27 Gospel : Matthew 13:1-53
Jan 30, 2022 | Torah Portion
The ark of the covenant was at the heart of the Tabernacle. As such, it corresponds to the heart of man. Just as the ark was God's throne in the Tabernacle, we need to make our hearts a suitable throne for Him in our lives.
You shall put into the ark the testimony which I shall give you. (Exodus 25:16)
In Hebrew thought, the heart is the not regarded as the seat of the emotions. Instead it represents a person's thoughts, intellect and will. The Hebrew Bible uses the word heart the way we use the word mind in English.
The Torah says, “Every intent of the thoughts of [man's] heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5) and “The intent of man's heart is evil from his youth” (Genesis 8:21). The prophet Jeremiah says, “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). If this is the state of the human mind, how can we ever hope to change? How can we have pure hearts? “Who can say, ‘I have cleansed my heart, I am pure from my sin ‘?” (Proverbs 20:9).
God promises that He will change our hearts from within. This is the promise of His new covenant. In Jeremiah 31:33, He said He would make a new covenant with His people Israel, and as a part of the new covenant, He would change their hearts by writing His Torah on them:
“But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD, “I will put My Torah within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” (Jeremiah 31:33)
The concept of placing the Torah in our hearts is illustrated by the ark of the covenant. The ark was made to house the two tablets of the covenant. So too the Torah is to be placed in our hearts. The prophet Ezekiel promises that in the Messianic redemption God will give us new hearts:
Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. (Ezekiel 36:26)
When we commit ourselves to be followers of Yeshua and recipients of His cleansing, the Spirit of God begins the process of recreating our hearts. We should pray toward this end with the words of King David, who said, “Create in me a clean heart, O God” (Psalm 51:10). Then we may declare along with him, “I delight to do Your will, O my God; Your Torah is within my heart” (Psalm 40:8).
The Torah can be likened to a marriage contract (ketubah). In Jewish tradition, the ketubah is placed somewhere within the family home as a continual reminder of the marriage obligations. In the days of Moses, the Tabernacle stood in the center of the encampment of the tribes of Israel. The focal point of the Tabernacle was an inner chamber called the Holy of Holies, in which stood the ark of the covenant. The two tablets of the Ten Commandments were inside the ark. In that regard, the Torah, God's ketubah with Israel, was at the center of the home.
<blockquote>You shall overlay it with pure gold, inside and out you shall overlay it, and you shall make a gold molding around it. (Exodus 25:11)</blockquote>
The ark was a wooden chest constructed of resinous acacia wood. The wood was overlaid with pure gold inside and outside. We can understand why the chest was coated with gold on the outside where it could be seen, but why waste precious gold by overlaying the inside of the chest? No one could see the inside of the ark.
The gold on the inside teaches us an important lesson about integrity. To be a suitable vessel for God's service, it is not sufficient for a person to merely look godly on the outside. Though the exterior appearance is important, the interior is equally important. The word hypocrite comes from the Greek word for “actor.” A hypocrite is someone who acts like a righteous person but is not. Yeshua criticized many of the pharisees of His day and their disciples for hypocrisy.
One who looks righteous on the outside but is privately godless is a hypocrite. A person who dresses piously and pretends to behave holy while harboring wicked and impure things in his heart is a hypocrite.
The ark of the covenant was overlaid with pure gold on the outside and the inside to teach us that it is not sufficient to be righteous only in the eyes of men. “God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7).
Jan 23, 2022 | Torah Portion
Modern, Western readers find many of the laws in this Torah portion harsh, primitive, or otherwise distasteful. The laws reflect a different world from our own. When the Torah begins to speak in a matter-of-fact manner about the institution of slavery, about selling one’s daughter, about repaying measure-for-measure, it disconcerts the modern reader. He is tempted to comfort himself with the notion that the unpleasant laws have been done away with by the New Testament and replaced by kinder, gentler, and nobler virtues.
On the contrary, the mouth of God spoke every commandment of Torah. Human society may change, but God does not change. Each mitzvah is holy and eternal. Every commandment distills His essence and communicates a pure revelation of His person. The study of the commandments is the study of God.
As soon as we begin to discard commandments, we have begun editing God and reshaping the Almighty into an image which we deem more appropriate. The Torah contains both law and revelation. It provides a rule of conduct, but at the same time, it expresses God in human terms. If a person realizes that Torah is God’s own self-disclosure to the world, he will appreciate the enormous gravity of declaring that same Torah null or void. Even the smallest commandment of the Torah is suffused with godliness. To declare a commandment irrelevant or obsolete denies the eternal and unchanging nature of God.
The Torah contains laws about murder, abuse, murdering one’s parents, slavery, bestiality, incest, and a host of disagreeable things. How can this be a holy, godly revelation of the Infinite Light? The Apostle Paul explained, “All things become visible when they are exposed by the light” (Ephesians 5:13).
The Talmud reminds us that “the Torah was not given to angels.” Instead, God gave the Torah to flawed and sinful human beings. The Torah speaks directly into human society with all of its wrinkles, and it speaks in the language of the flawed and imperfect in order to infuse godliness into the world. It has descended from a very high place (God) to a very low place (man), yet it has still retained its godly essence. That godly essence might be wrapped in garments of human concern (such as the laws of slavery or compensation for negligence), but if one takes the trouble to unwrap the commandment, it will blaze forth in his hands with the brilliance of heaven.
Paul alludes to the dichotomy of the holy, concealed within matters of the profane. He tells Timothy that the Torah is good if one uses it “lawfully,” that is in the administration of justice:
But we know that the [Torah] is good, if one uses it lawfully, realizing the fact that [Torah] is not made for a righteous person, but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers and immoral men and homosexuals and kidnappers and liars and perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching. (1 Timothy 1:8-10)
Mishpatim – ×ž×©×¤×˜×™× : “Judgments” Torah : Exodus 21:1-24:18 Haftarah : 2 Kings 11:17-12:17* Gospels : Luke 7:1-8:3
Jan 16, 2022 | Torah Portion
Jewish tradition maintains that the first commandment is the commandment to believe in God. Christian tradition has the first commandment as the prohibition on worshipping other gods. Eastern Orthodox reckoning agrees that the second commandment is a prohibition on idols. All of these commandments teach us to worship God alone and not to make representations of Him or any other gods. God explains these commandments by saying, “I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God” (Exodus 20:5).
Does this mean that God is jealous in the sense of a petty, selfish jealousy that takes offense when attention and affection are directed anywhere else? Of course not. God is jealous in the sense that a loving husband is jealous over his wife.
If your spouse told you, “I don't care whether you see other people; it doesn't bother me,” you would be alarmed that he or she no longer holds your wedding vows as sacrosanct. It would bother you that your spouse had such little affection for you that infidelity was not even an issue. It would be a clear and certain sign that your spouse cared little for you or for your relationship.
The Hebrew word for jealousy (kana, קנאה) is also translated as “zeal.” The term “jealous God” could be translated as “zealous God” or even “impassioned God.” God is passionately in love with His people. He is like a steadfast and faithful husband who does not waver in his affection or commitment to his bride. Because of that, He will not tolerate the worship of other gods, nor will He allow for the worship of idols. He feels the same way about idolatry and paganism that a faithful husband would feel about his wife having an affair.
God's fidelity should encourage us to adopt the same standard of jealous devotion to Him. Just as a faithful and steadfast wife would shun the affections of other men and refuse their flirtatious gifts and suggestive advances, we should be resolved to give no room to idolatry in our lives.
God is passionately in love with us. We should return that passion.
Yitro – יתרו : “Jethro” Torah : Exodus 18:1-20:23 (26) Haftarah : Isaiah 6:1-7:6; 9:5-6 Gospel : Mark 7-8
Jan 9, 2022 | Torah Portion
The Israelites understood that they were to escape through the midst of the sea, but the sea had not yet split. Jewish legend says that Moses bade the Israelites step into the sea, but they were unwilling to do so until Nahshon sprang forward and plunged into the water. He struggled under the waves and nearly drowned. As the water washed over him, the LORD instructed Moses to lift his staff and stretch out his hand so that the water might split. Nahshon then led the Israelites to safety on the other side.
The legend of Nahshon’s leap of faith hints toward Messiah. The rabbis teach that Nahshon earned merit for the entire tribe of Judah when he leapt into the sea, earning his tribe the right to the kingdom of the house of David: “Nahshon jumped into the midst of the waves of the sea, followed by his tribe. Therefore the tribe of Judah merited the kingdom.” (Mechilta).
What did Israel say at the sea? They said, “The LORD shall reign forever and ever” (Exodus 15:8). The Holy One, blessed be He, therefore said, “I will make him king because He was the reason they proclaimed me as king at the sea.” (Mechilta, Beshalach)
The rabbis compared Nahshon’s leap into the sea to the willing sacrifice made by Shadrach, Meshack, and Abednego when they stepped into the fiery furnace. Nahshon acted like a holy martyr voluntarily accepting martyrdom for the sake of sanctifying the name of the LORD. Through his voluntary act of “martyrdom,” so to speak, he obtained the privilege of becoming an ancestor of the kingly dynasty of Messiah.
Like Nahshon, Yeshua willingly laid down His life for the sake of His people. His death brought forgiveness for transgressions. He became the “great atoning prince.” Like Nahshon, the Messiah is the prince (nasi) over the tribe of Judah. The Messiah is the archegos of life in that He was the first to pass from death to life. In that sense, the Red Sea can be compared to death. Just as Nahshon led Israel through the sea to safety on the other side, Messiah leads the way through death to safety on the other side through His resurrection.
Day 7 of Passover Torah : Exodus 13:17 – 15:26 & Numbers 28:19 – 28:25 Haftarah : II Samuel 22:1-51
Jan 2, 2022 | Torah Portion
Moses and Aaron continued to wage a war of signs and wonders while Pharaoh continued to harden his own heart until God began to harden it for him. A plague of locusts descended upon Egypt, turning the sky black with their sheer numbers, stripping the ground as they devoured every living piece of vegetation. A plague of darkness blotted out the lights of Egypt creating darkness so heavy that it felt palpable—yet in the houses of the children of Israel, light still shone.
Finally, the signs and wonders culminated with a terrible and awe-inspiring final plague that struck at the heart of Egypt, even breaking through Pharaoh’s resilient pride: the plague of the slaying of the firstborn.
The LORD described how He would pass over Egypt around the middle of the night, striking dead the firstborn of every family—from the least to the greatest. The slayer would not even spare the firstborn of the cattle. Even Pharaoh’s firstborn son, heir to the throne of Egypt and heir to Pharaoh’s divinity, would not escape.
Juxtaposed against the drama unfolding in Egypt, the Passover sacrifice strikes an indelible impression on the mind of the reader. God set the stakes high. Death came to the land of Egypt—a judgment from heaven, a terror in the night, and it did not spare even the firstborn sons of the Israelites. The slayer of the firstborn took no account of merits of innocence or guilt. Faith and creed did not enter the equation. Previous plagues had shown particularity, sparing the children of Israel in the midst of Egypt. The tenth plague, however, dealt its blow impartially. Just as in life itself, death knows no boundaries, the final plague brought death to the righteous and the wicked alike.
The LORD required only one condition for salvation in this instance: the blood of the lamb on the doorway of the home. Only homes marked by the blood of a lamb could escape.
The Torah commanded the children of Israel to keep the Passover every year as an appointed time. For 3,400 years, the Jewish people have kept the legacy of the Passover alive with the annual celebration of Passover, the time appointed for redemption.
Bo – ×‘×•× : “Come” Torah : Exodus 10:1-13:16 Haftarah : Jeremiah 46:13-28 Gospel : Mark 3:7-19
Dec 26, 2021 | Torah Portion
God did not arbitrarily or capriciously decide to harden Pharaoh’s heart. From the outset, He explained that He intended to make His contest with the Egyptian pantheon into a public affair. He said, “Against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments—I am the LORD” (Exodus 12:12). He intended to use Egypt as a theater in which He could establish His name (i.e., His reputation) and His identity in the eyes of His people Israel, in the eyes of all Egypt, and in the eyes of the whole world.
The Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I stretch out My hand on Egypt and bring out the sons of Israel from their midst. (Exodus 7:5)
In the Semitic sense, to declare one’s name means to broadcast a person’s fame and reputation. To declare God’s name means to reveal who God is, i.e., to glorify Him. It has nothing to do with pronouncing or not pronouncing the sacred name of God; it has everything to do with revealing God’s person and character to the world.
Consider the following passages from the exodus narrative in which the Almighty explains His motives for striking Egypt and delivering Israel:
The Egyptians shall know I am the LORD. (Exodus 7:5)That you many know there is no one like the LORD our God. (Exodus 8:10)So that you will know that I, the LORD, am in this land. (Exodus 8:22)In order to show you My power and in order to proclaim My name through all the earth. (Exodus 9:16)And that you may tell in the hearing of your son, and of your grandson, how I made a mockery of the Egyptians and how I performed My signs among them, that you may know that I am the LORD. (Exodus 10:2)Against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments–I am the LORD. (Exodus 12:12)I will be honored through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD. (Exodus 14:4)
The LORD used the plagues, the signs, the wonders, and even the redemption of Israel to show His power and to proclaim His name through all the earth. He made His grand entrance onto the stage of world history and sent a message to the whole world: “I exist, I am God, there is none like Me!” He sent a message to the false gods and the idols, proving that He alone is God and there is none other. Israel is the trophy of His victory.
The demonstration succeeded. The decimation of Egypt made an impact on the world, and the name of the LORD has never since been forgotten. In Jericho, the Canaanites were still talking about what God did in Egypt forty years later. The Philistines were still talking about it two hundred years later. We are still talking about it today.
Va'era – ו××¨× : “And I appeared” Torah : Exodus 6:2-9:35 Haftarah : Ezekiel 28:25-29:21 Gospel : Matthew 12:1-14
