Par'sahVayetze

[alon]

Next week’s reading schedule:

Date of reading: 2 Dec 2017/14 Kislev 5778

Name of Par’shah- Vayishlach

Par’shah- Gen 32:4 – 36:43

Haftara- Hoseah 11:7-12:12(11); Obedaiah 1:21

Brit Chadashah- 1 Cor 5:1-13; Rev 7:1-12


This week’s readings:

Date of reading- 25 N0v 2017/7 Kislev 5778

Name of Par’shah- Vayetze

Par’shah- Gen 28:10–32:3

Haftara- Hoseah 12:13(12)-14:10 (9); 11:7-12(11)

Brit Chadashah- John 1:43-51

D’rash:

John 1:43-51 (ESV) The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!” Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” Jesus answered him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” And he said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you [plural], you [plural] will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

When I first heard Rabbi Stanley I was new to Messianic Judaism. In fact, I wasn’t really sure what it was at the time. I had found a couple of forums while in Hebrew Roots, one of which was a good Messianic forum. But still I had so much HR in my head I couldn’t yet sort it all out. After the teaching the Rabbi asked if I would be back. I said absolutely. He may have been a bit taken aback by my direct positive affirmation, but asked why. My reply was “I know the truth when I hear it.” It is hearing and studying the truth that always keeps me on track whenever I feel like chucking it all in. 

If you read the haftara you can see the heart of YHVH Elohe Yisro’el, the Lord God of Israel (Luke 1:68) as He speaks about the house of Ephraim (Judah) who lost sight of who it was they served. They made idols and sacrificed in a place and manner not prescribed by Elohei Avoteichem, the Lord God of Your (Their) Fathers (Exodus 3:15). But why pair these two passages, one about receiving a calling with clear eyes and one about forgetting a calling with the famous passage about Ya’akov’s Ladder and his less than stellar dealings with Laban; not to mention a description of one of the most dysfunctional families in the entire Bible?

Our par’shah starts out with Ya’akov recceiving the same calling and promises as were made by El-him with Avraham and Yitzach. He did not question the dream, instead recognizing it as the true Word of G-d:

Genesis 28:11-22 (ESV) And he came to a certain place and stayed there that night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder [Or a flight of steps, possibly a ramp as was common on ziggurats of that time] set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it! And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”

From here however things went downhill fast. The story goes on to tell of the deceitful dealings between Ya’akov and his fatherinlaw Lavan, how Ya’akov went from one to two then four wives, but only one of them was loved. It tells of the unhealthy competition of the two primary wives who bore children in order to gain favor with their husband instead of to raise healthy families:

Genesis 30:7-9 (ESV) Rachel's servant Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. Then Rachel said, “With mighty wrestlings I have wrestled with my sister and have prevailed.” So she called his name Naphtali. When Leah saw that she had ceased bearing children, she took her servant Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife.

But the crux of the issue here is a husband and a father who could only love one of the four women who bore him children. It is not a stretch to say this attitude was also transferred to the children. And they would have been privy to the scheming and lies between their grandfather Lavan and their father. Even theft was not out of bounds for the feuding family:

Genesis 31:19-20 (ESV) Laban had gone to shear his sheep, and Rachel stole her father's household gods. And Jacob tricked [Hebrew stole the heart or mind of] Laban the Aramean, by not telling him that he intended to flee.

Note the play on words here; Leah stole idols from her father Lavan. But in Hebrew thought tricking someone is “stealing their mind.” Theft often finds its roots in jealousy and mistrust. Once even close relatives are defined as enemies it is easy to justify any actions against them. And if family is seen this way, how must we look upon the rest of the world?

Author Aaron Fruh makes the point that the character of children is set in their early years by the way their father sees them as well as how they see their father act. Pastor Ed Cole goes further to say that the character of a nation is in large part set by its’ king (or ruler). So we see here the seeds of division and how they are sewn. In this case it will later lead to the division of a family with the sons’ of Ya’akov conspiring to kill, but then selling into slavery their own brother who was favored by his father over them.

In the case of the haftara it is set in a time when Yeruvoam led the Northern Kingdom (Judah/Ephraim) into sin, dividing the nation which Ad-n Himself had established.

Genesis 31:34-35 (ESV) Now Rachel had taken the household gods and put them in the camel's saddle and sat on them. Laban felt all about the tent, but did not find them. And she said to her father, “Let not my lord be angry that I cannot rise before you, for the way of women is upon me.” So he searched but did not find the household gods.

The only reason he did not find what he was looking for was that she told him she was having her menses. Anything on which a menstruant sits is deemed impure, making this account rich in satire. But why steal the idols in the first place? I asked Rabbi Stanley this and he said that land deeds were often transferred with idols. She was most likely taking her inheritance.

We live in a fallen world whose ways are pagan, and so we must often use coins with graven images, obtain documents with embossed stamps with those images or with pagan symbols printed on them. That we must deal with these things makes them no less unclean.

I try to always empty my pockets of coins before going to shul. Bt it occurs to me that the paper money has a pyramid with an “All Seeing Eye” printed on it; clearly alluding tot the Egyptian god Ra. We need to always be on the lookout for these things. We must use them in our day to day transactions, but we must also always separate the holy from the profane, or common things. I think this is a good example why.

Lavan catches up to Ya’akov, however having been warned by El-him he did not curse nor harm him. But to say the meeting was strained is an understatement. Even so, as they leave they make a nonaggression pact with El-Roiy, the God Who Sees Me (Genesis 16:13) as witness:

Genesis 31:44, 46, 48-52, 54 (ESV) Come now, let us make a covenant, you and I. And let it be a witness between you and me.” … And Jacob said to his kinsmen, “Gather stones.” And they took stones and made a heap, and they ate there by the heap. … Laban said, “This heap is a witness between you and me today.” Therefore he named it Galeed, and Mizpah, for he said, “The Lord watch between you and me, when we are out of one another's sight. If you oppress my daughters, or if you take wives besides my daughters, although no one is with us, see, God is witness between you and me.” Then Laban said to Jacob, “See this heap and the pillar, which I have set between you and me. This heap is a witness, and the pillar is a witness, that I will not pass over this heap to you, and you will not pass over this heap and this pillar to me, to do harm. … and Jacob offered a sacrifice in the hill country and called his kinsmen to eat bread. They ate bread and spent the night in the hill country.

This is a Threshold Covenant; the same kind as when the Messenger of Death passed over those houses whose doorways had on them the blood of the slain lamb. It binds families and friends to one another. To cross a threshold on which a sacrifice had been made was thought to incur the wrath of the G-d or gods who those in the household served. Again we see the satirical depiction of Lavan here as this was a covenant before El-Elyon, the Most High God (Genesis 14:18); yet it is also more than likely this was the reason he so wanted to retrieve his household idols. Without them he could not invoke the protection of those gods; not to mention the loss of his claim to the property they had dominion over.

In any event the pact would seem to have been made under duress, as Lavan did not show the same affection to Ya’akov as before when he served him:

Genesis 31:55 (ESV) Early in the morning Laban arose and kissed his grandchildren and his daughters and blessed them. Then Laban departed and returned home.

Note Lavan kissed all but Ya’akov before they parted.


As the cares of this world and the mistreatment of others and our own petty jealousies seem to close in on us, it is easy to forget just who we are and who we serve. We forget what drew us to Messianic Judaism and a closer walk with El-him in the first place. Both Nathaneal and myself recognized the truth when we heard it, and we were all in at that point. It may have been something different for you, but always hold on to whatever it was that drew you to Messianic Judaism. Allow this to help you stay the course and overcome all the negative things you’ve learned being in the world. Hang in there and allow the Ruach to renew your mind:

Romans 12:2 (ESV) Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Resources: JPS Study TNK, Aaron Fruh, Pastor Ed Cole, Rabbi Stanley, my father and others

Dan Ca’an

[alon]

I got this from a friend:

The story of Jacob's Ladder can be seen as a prophecy of the Messiah. HaShem gave Ya’akov a vision as he slept wherin malachim ascended and descended upon him, and God confirmed the covenant with him. In the morning he erected the stone he lay his head on as a monument and anointed it with oil.

Just as Ya’akov slept at Bethel, Messiah slept in death and rested upon a stone. The descending malachim represent HaMoshiach Yeshua’s atoning suffering and death, while the ascending malachim represent His triumphant resurrection.

The stone on which Ya’akov had laid his head signified the promises in his dream. The stone was made a marker of the place this encounter with God had occurred. The site was sacred, and Ya’akov anointed the stone with oil. So here we see the first anointing ceremony in the , which points to the Annointed One of Elohim; Yeshua HaMoshiach.

We also see in  John 1:51 that Yeshua says "You will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the 'Son of Man." So Ya'akov, from whose lineage we will receive the Messiah is himself representative of that Messiah!

Midrash Genesis Rabbah 69:8 says Ya’akov anointed the stone with oil to indicate that in the future his descendants would be anointed to priesthood and kingship. But where did he get this oil? Gen 32:10 says when he left the land of Canaan he had nothing with him except the staff in his hand. The midrash explains “The oil was supplied to him from heaven in abundance, as though from a cruse full to the very top.” So just as God had provided the sacrifice for Avraham and Yitzach, and would provide the sacrifice for sins in His Anointed One, so He provided the oil for the first anointing here in our reading.