Post by alon on Jul 19, 2019 16:43:14 GMT -8
This week’s readings:
Date of reading- 20 July 2019/17 Tammuz 5779
Name of Par’shah- Balak
Par’shah- Numbers 22:2-25:9
Haftara- Micah 5:6-6:8
Brit Chadashah- Jude 11, Revelation 2:14, Matthew 12:1-7
D’rash: Balaam was a prophet of HaShem. Probably a Jew living and raised in a foreign land, he knew nothing of his own people or their God. Still, God spoke through him. He told Balak right up front he could not prophecy anything other than what the LORD told him. And he did just that, risking death to give what was told him by God to Balak:
Numbers 22:38 (NKJV) And Balaam said to Balak, “Look, I have come to you! Now, have I any power at all to say anything? The word that God puts in my mouth, that I must speak.”
However he sinned in the end, telling Balak how to defeat the Hebrews:
Jude 11(NASB) Woe to them! For they have gone the way of Cain, and for pay they have rushed headlong into the error of Balaam, and perished in the rebellion of Korah.
What was the sin of Balaam?
Revelation 2:14 (NKJV) But I have a few things against you, because you have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality.
And we are commanded to remember this in our haftara:
Micah 6:5 (ESV) O my people, remember what Balak king of Moab devised,
and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him,
and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal,
that you may know the righteous acts of the Lord.”
Why remember what was a less than stellar incident with both Balaam and the children of Israel? That we may not fall into the same trap; that we may know what God wants and requires of us:
Micah 6:6-8 (ESV) What Does the Lord Require?
“With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?
Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”
He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, [chesed] and to walk humbly with your God?
This is not a proscription of sacrifices or a prophecy they will end. It is about the primacy of chesed, loving kindness in all we do. To that end we are to exercise good judgement with those we meet. Does this mean everyone is good? They all get a pass?
No, there are obviously bad people in this world, and telling them they are good does no one any good at all- especially the bad person. If they are told they are good, why change? Might they not even know they need to change?
And by what standard do we judge?
Psalm 119:66 (NASB) Teach me good [judgment] and knowledge, For I believe in Your commandments.
The term commandments is from the Hebrew מצוה mitzvah. And we find the mitzvoth in
, our base and our standard against how everything is judged: scripture and holy writ, deeds good and bad, good, bad, wise, foolish, and every kind of person.
Matthew 12:1-4,6-7 (NASB) At that [occasion] Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath, and His disciples became hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat. But when the Pharisees saw this, they said to Him, “Look, Your disciples do what is not lawful to do on a Sabbath.” But He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he became hungry, he and his companions, how he entered the house of God, and they ate the [showbread], which was not lawful for him to eat nor for those with him, but for the priests alone? … But I say to you that something greater than the temple is here. But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire compassion [mercy, chesed], and not a sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.
In this passage from Matthew Yeshua’s talmidim shelled some grain out and ate it. I want to zero in on one aspect of this passage, chesed- lovingkindness
We know there are higher mitzvoth that might require us to break Shabbat. Indeed, all the biblical as well as Jewish traditional exceptions hang on one term here: כסד chesed, Gk ἔλεος eleos.
First we need to clear something up. Many translations and indeed most Christian doctrine interprets vs. 6 above as the King James does:
Matthew 12:6 (KJV) But I say unto you, That in this place is one greater than the temple.
“One greater” is generally understood to be Yeshua. Many modern translations render this like the NASB above: “something greater than the temple is here.” Some “thing.” That “thing” is stated in the next verse, and it is כסד chesed, ἔλεος eleos, mercy/lovingkindness. This verse is actually a quote from the OT:
Hosea 6:6 (ESV) For I desire steadfast love [Septuagint mercy, כסד chesed, Gk ἔλεος eleos] and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
Another translation of chesed is compassion. “God desires compassion more than sacrifice.” God’s favor, His lovingkindness, His divine grace, His mercy towards us- His chesed is greater than the Temple, which since it stood at the time this was said could be taken literally. However it could also be taken figuratively to mean our worship in general and our attitude towards others.
So all the exceptions in the Oral Tradition, and every exception in halachic rulings to this day are based on God’s chesed towards us. He expects no less from us.
Date of reading- 20 July 2019/17 Tammuz 5779
Name of Par’shah- Balak
Par’shah- Numbers 22:2-25:9
Haftara- Micah 5:6-6:8
Brit Chadashah- Jude 11, Revelation 2:14, Matthew 12:1-7
D’rash: Balaam was a prophet of HaShem. Probably a Jew living and raised in a foreign land, he knew nothing of his own people or their God. Still, God spoke through him. He told Balak right up front he could not prophecy anything other than what the LORD told him. And he did just that, risking death to give what was told him by God to Balak:
Numbers 22:38 (NKJV) And Balaam said to Balak, “Look, I have come to you! Now, have I any power at all to say anything? The word that God puts in my mouth, that I must speak.”
However he sinned in the end, telling Balak how to defeat the Hebrews:
Jude 11(NASB) Woe to them! For they have gone the way of Cain, and for pay they have rushed headlong into the error of Balaam, and perished in the rebellion of Korah.
What was the sin of Balaam?
Revelation 2:14 (NKJV) But I have a few things against you, because you have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality.
And we are commanded to remember this in our haftara:
Micah 6:5 (ESV) O my people, remember what Balak king of Moab devised,
and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him,
and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal,
that you may know the righteous acts of the Lord.”
Why remember what was a less than stellar incident with both Balaam and the children of Israel? That we may not fall into the same trap; that we may know what God wants and requires of us:
Micah 6:6-8 (ESV) What Does the Lord Require?
“With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?
Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”
He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, [chesed] and to walk humbly with your God?
This is not a proscription of sacrifices or a prophecy they will end. It is about the primacy of chesed, loving kindness in all we do. To that end we are to exercise good judgement with those we meet. Does this mean everyone is good? They all get a pass?
No, there are obviously bad people in this world, and telling them they are good does no one any good at all- especially the bad person. If they are told they are good, why change? Might they not even know they need to change?
And by what standard do we judge?
Psalm 119:66 (NASB) Teach me good [judgment] and knowledge, For I believe in Your commandments.
The term commandments is from the Hebrew מצוה mitzvah. And we find the mitzvoth in
, our base and our standard against how everything is judged: scripture and holy writ, deeds good and bad, good, bad, wise, foolish, and every kind of person.Matthew 12:1-4,6-7 (NASB) At that [occasion] Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath, and His disciples became hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat. But when the Pharisees saw this, they said to Him, “Look, Your disciples do what is not lawful to do on a Sabbath.” But He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he became hungry, he and his companions, how he entered the house of God, and they ate the [showbread], which was not lawful for him to eat nor for those with him, but for the priests alone? … But I say to you that something greater than the temple is here. But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire compassion [mercy, chesed], and not a sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.
In this passage from Matthew Yeshua’s talmidim shelled some grain out and ate it. I want to zero in on one aspect of this passage, chesed- lovingkindness
We know there are higher mitzvoth that might require us to break Shabbat. Indeed, all the biblical as well as Jewish traditional exceptions hang on one term here: כסד chesed, Gk ἔλεος eleos.
First we need to clear something up. Many translations and indeed most Christian doctrine interprets vs. 6 above as the King James does:
Matthew 12:6 (KJV) But I say unto you, That in this place is one greater than the temple.
“One greater” is generally understood to be Yeshua. Many modern translations render this like the NASB above: “something greater than the temple is here.” Some “thing.” That “thing” is stated in the next verse, and it is כסד chesed, ἔλεος eleos, mercy/lovingkindness. This verse is actually a quote from the OT:
Hosea 6:6 (ESV) For I desire steadfast love [Septuagint mercy, כסד chesed, Gk ἔλεος eleos] and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
Another translation of chesed is compassion. “God desires compassion more than sacrifice.” God’s favor, His lovingkindness, His divine grace, His mercy towards us- His chesed is greater than the Temple, which since it stood at the time this was said could be taken literally. However it could also be taken figuratively to mean our worship in general and our attitude towards others.
So all the exceptions in the Oral Tradition, and every exception in halachic rulings to this day are based on God’s chesed towards us. He expects no less from us.
