MAY 28, 2022 Leviticus 24:22 You shall have the same law for the stranger and for one from your own country; for I am the Lord your God. Sandwiched in between the instructions given in relation to the incident we discussed in the previous devotion is the commandment above — one law for all people. Where the congregation of the LORD […]
MAY 27, 2022 Leviticus 24:10 Now the son of an Israelite woman, whose father was an Egyptian, went out among the children of Israel; and this Israelite woman’s son and a man of Israel fought each other in the camp. This may seem a strange passage to use for the purpose of a devotion and, frankly, considering what we […]
MAY 26, 2022 Leviticus 24:5-6 And you shall take fine flour and bake twelve cakes with it. … You shall set them in two rows, six in a row, on the pure gold table before the Lord. This is, of course, referring to the shewbread, or a better translation would be “the bread of the face (Presence).” These twelve cakes […]
MAY 25, 2022 Leviticus 24:1-2 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: “Command the children of Israel that they bring to you pure oil of pressed olives for the light, to make the lamps burn continually.” The seven branched lamp stand, the menorah, was to burn perpetually which is to say at all times and without interruption. The […]
MAY 24, 2022 Leviticus 23:42-43 You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All who are native Israelites shall dwell in booths, that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt. Very often, the Feast of Tabernacles is referred to as the “Season of […]
MAY 23, 2022 Leviticus 23:40 And you shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of beautiful trees, branches of palm trees, the boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days. Sukkot, or the Feast of Tabernacles, is known for many things. It is […]
MAY 22, 2022 Leviticus 23:34 Speak to the children of Israel, saying: “The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days to the Lord.” The seventh of the seven moedim — “appointed times” — is the Feast of Tabernacles, or as it is known in Hebrew, Sukkot. This is the plural form of the […]
The Torah portion begins by saying, “If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments so as to carry them out … ” (Leviticus 26:3). Isn’t that a bit redundant? What is the difference between (1) walking in the statutes, (2) keeping the commandments and (3) carrying them out?
In his classic commentaries on the Torah, Rashi wondered about this too and proposed a solution. He suggested that “walking in the statutes” refers to intensive study of the Torah. “Keeping the commandments” refers to learning how the commandments of Torah are properly kept. “Carrying them out” refers to actually doing what the commandments say to do. In other words, we should study Torah for the purpose of learning it, and we should learn it for the purpose of doing it.
This approach to Torah may seem obvious. It isn’t. Sometimes we study the Bible simply for the sake of learning the Scriptures, but we never get around to doing what the Bible tells us to do. We often hear the Word of God and learn its message but fail to put it into practice. This is especially true in regard to the laws of Torah.
In some Christian schools of thought, the laws of Torah are believed to have spiritual meanings instead of literal meanings. That suggests that the laws of Torah were never meant to be kept; they were only meant to be understood as spiritual lessons. Early church writings spoke about the spiritual meanings of the Torah’s commandments while discouraging people from actually practicing the Torah. That kind of thinking resulted from the influence of philosophical thought in the early church. In the philosophical worldview, the acquisition of knowledge is a worthy goal in and of itself.
In Jewish thought, the purpose for studying is more than simply the acquisition of knowledge. Knowledge and learning are regarded only as means for better serving God. Therefore, in Jewish thought, we study to learn and we learn to do.
Behar/Bechukotai | בהר/בחקותי | “On the mountain/In my statutes ” Torah : Leviticus 25:1-27:34 Haftarah : Jeremiah 16:19-17:14 Gospel : Luke 13:1-33/John 10:22-42/Luke 14:1-15:32
MAY 21, 2022 Leviticus 23:27 Also the tenth day of this seventh month shall be the Day of Atonement. It shall be a holy convocation for you; you shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. As I had previously mentioned, the seventh month is to the year what the seventh day is to […]
MAY 20, 2022 Leviticus 23:24 Speak to the children of Israel, saying: “In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a sabbath-rest, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation.” As we discussed in the previous devotion, on the first day of the seventh month, the shofar was sounded in acknowledgment of […]