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| Sun, 22 Dec 2024 02:00:05 -0600 — |
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D'var: Parashat Qedoshim 5784 Commentary by Robby Hurt Friday, May 10, 2024 |
| Leviticus 1:19–20:27 |
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Michael emailed me last Sunday and asked if I would "take on
D’var this week". I certainly considered it an honor.
As a habit I remembered that Abraham didn’t pray before going
into Hagar and Joshua didn’t pray before making the deal with
the Gibeonites and I knew the outcome so I said a prayer.
And came to the conclusion that the worse thing that could
happen is I not be asked to do it again so I accepted.
Kedoshim means "holy and sacred". In short the Parashah does not introduce lots of new material as much as it brings previous parashahs to remembrance, defines, clarifies, and builds on them. The Holiness and fear of G-d, the Ten Commandments, agricultural practices, provisions for the poor and strangers, sexual purity, clean and unclean. Or as chabad.org puts it: the prohibition against idolatry, the mitzvah of charity, the principle of equality before the law, Shabbat, sexual morality, honesty in business, honor and awe of one’s parents, and the sacredness of life. myjewishlearning.com and chabad.org has additional information, material, and insights on these parashahs that are very inspirational, encouraging, and comforting. Parashat Kedoshim: Summary | My Jewish Learning Kedoshim in a Nutshell - Texts & Summaries - Parshah At some point I figured out and in some cases was taught the intensity that Jews pursued the study of G-d, Torah, and Tanakh. And purposed to pursue with the same intensity. And at the same time was awakened to the inexhaustible riches and value contained in Tanakh. Some of these verses have special meaning, personal life lessons, and in some cases universal lessons. For the benefit of those that I have not had previous discussions either privately or in other Torah Studies- I believe there are practical benefits and protections from obedience besides the testing component and not making G-d angry. For example bacterias and viruses are created from lack of observance. And other disease causing processes that I will leave to Don, Dr. Leuchtag, and others to expound on in your hearing. And yes science has managed some workarounds. JPS Tanakh 1917 It shall be eaten the same day ye offer it, and on the morrow; and if aught remain until the third day, it shall be burnt with fire. Gentiles didn’t practice this and there was catastrophic consequences. There might be known scientific studies of bacterial, viral, and prion growth with meat in atmospheric conditions. My question is can you extend the clock in the eyes of G-d and Torah by putting the meat in the refrigerator or freezer other than to stop bacterial growth? If this passage had been followed, Spontaneous Generation, the first competing narrative, of origins against the Genesis/Torah Narrative would not have achieved such dominance. Spontaneous Generation was a theory developed by Aristotle in roughly 350BCE that living creatures could arise out of non living matter. For example worms from rotten meat, various mites, fleas, and bugs from sand/dirt, various mollusks from slime, and even mice from wheat. The theory achieved universal prominence in the western world outside of Judaism and even into Judeo-Christian for over 2,000 years. But was finally successfully disproved by Louis Pasteur in the late 1800s. Do a search of Spontaneous Generation if you have additional interest. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spontaneous_generation
Leviticus 19:15
JPS Tanakh 1917 Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment; thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor favour the person of the mighty; but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbour TAX THE RICH "Tax the Rich" is anti-Torah and anti-G-d". Tithe is a flat tax created and sanctioned by G-d. Secular Academia calls it "Regressive" meaning it hits the poor disproportionately.
Lev. 19:17
Not positive of the parameters on animals. Beefalo? Geep? Libido
JPS Tanakh 1917 Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart; thou shalt surely rebuke thy neighbour, and not bear sin because of him. Lev. 19:19 JPS Tanakh 1917 Ye shall keep My statutes. Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind; thou shalt not sow thy field with two kinds of seed; neither shall there come upon thee a garment of two kinds of stuff mingled together. Wheat and Barley have different seedtime- harvest cycles for example. Are there other considerations like pollination? Garments-different shrinkage properties? Mexico example.
Leviticus 19:23-25
JPS Tanakh 1917 When you enter the land and plant any kind of tree for food, you shall regard the fruit as forbidden. For three years it will be forbidden to you and must not be eaten. In the fourth year all its fruit must be consecrated as a praise offering to the LORD. But in the fifth year you may eat its fruit; thus your harvest will be increased. I am the LORD your God. Lev. 19:26 JPS Tanakh 1917 Ye shall not eat with the blood; neither shall ye practise divination nor soothsaying. Post WW 1 & 2 the US and maybe all western nations discovered the pagan practices of former enemies and adopted them. For example blood-meal is frequently part of a feedlot ration. I’m told that baby pigs do amazing on a blood-meal supplement. And Blood Sausage is prominent in some cultures. But what are the consequences Don and Dr. Leuchtag?
Leviticus 19:30
JPS Tanakh 1917 Ye shall keep My sabbaths, and reverence My sanctuary: I am the LORD. Isaiah gave additional clarification on this: Isaiah 58:13
JPS Tanakh 1917
If thou turn away thy foot because of the sabbath, From pursuing thy business on My holy day; And call the sabbath a delight, And the holy of the LORD honourable; And shalt honour it, not doing thy wonted ways, Nor pursuing thy business We wanted church to be over so we could see the kickoff of the NFL Game.
Lev. 20:13
Speaks against same sex relations. JPS Tanakh 1917 And if a man lie with mankind, as with womankind, both of them have committed abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them. Leviticus 20:25 JPS Tanakh 1917 Ye shall therefore separate between the clean beast and the unclean, and between the unclean fowl and the clean; and ye shall not make your souls detestable by beast, or by fowl, or by any thing wherewith the ground teemeth, which I have set apart for you to hold unclean. Some of the CE versions use the word "abomination" instead of "detestable". Detestable possibly had a harsher connotation BCE. G-d made a distinction between "clean" and "unclean" in Genesis 7 with the different species on Noah’s Ark. So predating Abraham and Torah. If you know what those unclean animals were designed for and could watch what they eat in the wild it would significantly decrease your cravings for them. My gentile brother became pork Kosher in less than 24 hours. Does Farm Raised ie grain fed “unclean” change anything? Even their carcasses were "detestable". I’m going to stay "clean" as much as possible. Unless the only thing to eat is a "donkey’s head and dove’s dung" as once happened in ancient Israel and even worse.
Leviticus 20:27
JPS Tanakh 1917 A man also or a woman that divineth by a ghost or a familiar spirit, shall surely be put to death; they shall stone them with stones; their blood shall be upon them. I always try to stop at the local fortune teller’s business and tell them G-d doesn’t want them in that business. HAFTARAH There are 3 different Haftarahs mentioned at different sites. Of which 2 of them I understand as being Ashkenazi and Sephardi. But some sites have what is called “Alternate Haftarah”. I don’t know what that means. Both the Ashkenazi and Sephardi Haftarahs are from Ezekiel and the alternate in Amos deals with Israel and Judah’s sins and disobediences articulated in the Ten Commandments. Idols are mentioned many times. Ezekiel prophesied in Babylon and probably died there. But Jews didn’t seem to have a predisposition to idolatry after that. In short doing everything is not easy. King David, "a man after G-d’s own heart", prayed 2 times that he would "respect all of the commandments" and even saw the need to pray that G-d would "l;enlarge his heart to enable him to obey all of G-d’s commandments". An often used metaphor is "the canary in the coal mine". A coal mine does not cover very much geography. Providentially Jews, Israel, and Jerusalem are "the canary in the coal mine" for the entire universe- Visually and in Real Time. And you are for those galaxies seen on the Webb and Hubble Telescopes as far as 130 Million Light Years away. And you have been since Abraham was called in Genesis 12 and will be forever. From mine and many’s perspective Ezekiel 37 started coming to pass with the Rebirth of the Nation of Israel in 1948. The rise of Persia which is Iran in Ezekiel 38 is potentially unfolding now. At present among other things I daily keep Ezekiel 37, 38, and 39 "before my eyes" and follow some Israeli news sites and YouTube channels. So to the degree I am able I want to encourage you in your relationship with G-d and in your ethnicity as Torah and Tanakh unfold before our very eyes. The most important thing to remember from this Parashah and Haftarah is HOPE. G-d loves you and you are His wife forever in spite of the disobediences. And I have and have had more disobediences than you all. But David wrote in Psalm 139 that G-d thinks about us throughout our life "more times than there are grains of sand on the seashore". And many times in Psalms it says, "Hope Thou in G-d". That is what I do continually. Robby Hurt |
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