- there are 70 faces to 
Post by alon on Sept 11, 2020 21:36:53 GMT -8
Name of Par’shah- 49.3b Qahal, Assembly
Par’shah- Deu 23:1–25:19
D’rash: Continuing to name the second half of our parashot after the first verse:
H6951 קָהָל qâhâl; assemblage (usually concretely): - assembly, company, congregation, multitude.
Those Excluded from the Assembly
Deuteronomy 23:1 (ESV) “No one whose testicles are crushed or whose male organ is cut off shall enter the assembly of the Lord.” No male who has had debilitating injuries to the groin shall be allowed into the congregation. The term qahal is used both to mean the Hebrew people and the religious assembly.
Deuteronomy 23:2-4 (ESV) “No one born of a forbidden union may enter the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation, none of his descendants may enter the assembly of the Lord. No Ammonite or Moabite may enter the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation, none of them may enter the assembly of the Lord forever, because they did not meet you with bread and with water on the way, when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you.” 10 signifies testimony, law, responsibility and the completeness of order. In this context it means forever. What we do can have serious consequences for our children. They may not be held responsible for our sins, but they may bear the consequences.
Deuteronomy 23:7 (ESV) “You shall not abhor an Edomite, for he is your brother. You shall not abhor an Egyptian, because you were a sojourner in his land. Children born to them in the third generation may enter the assembly of the Lord." They could live as resident aliens during the time of their prohibition. Then, since they would know the ways and think like Jews, they could join Israel. Odd though, since Egypt had enslaved them and Edom would participate it the destruction of the Temple.
Uncleanness in the Camp
Deuteronomy 23:9 (ESV) “When you are encamped against your enemies, then you shall keep yourself from every evil thing.” Not being home where everyone can see you does not mean you can do as you please. If we expect God to fight with us, we must remain a holy, set apart people.
Deuteronomy 23:12 (ESV) “You shall have a place outside the camp, and you shall go out to it. And you shall have a trowel with your tools, and when you sit down outside, you shall dig a hole with it and turn back and cover up your excrement.” Latrines should be established outside the camp when in the field militarily.
Miscellaneous Laws
Deuteronomy 23:15-16 (ESV) “You shall not give up to his master a slave [the Hebrew ‘ebed designates a range of social and economic roles] who has escaped from his master to you. He shall dwell with you, in your midst, in the place that he shall choose within one of your towns, wherever it suits him. You shall not wrong him." Law concerning extradition. Asylum should be granted when the case warrants it.
Deuteronomy 23:17 (ESV) “None of the daughters of Israel shall be a cult prostitute, and none of the sons of Israel shall be a cult prostitute.” Cult prostitution had a religious component to it, so this was an abomination of two counts.
Deuteronomy 23:18 (ESV) You shall not bring the fee of a prostitute or the wages of a dog [male prostitute] into the house of the Lord your God in payment for any vow, for both of these are an abomination to the Lord your God. Pretty straight forward.
Deuteronomy 23:19-20 (ESV) “You shall not charge interest on loans to your brother, interest on money, interest on food, interest on anything that is lent for interest. You may charge a foreigner interest, but you may not charge your brother interest, that the Lord your God may bless you in all that you undertake in the land that you are entering to take possession of it.” Your brother here is any member of your community or assembly of worship. At the time it would mean any Hebrew. “Foreigners" as distinct from the resident alien who was part of Israel’s social fabric, participating fully in their social welfare system and protected by and subject to their laws.
Deuteronomy 23:21 (ESV) “If you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay fulfilling it, for the Lord your God will surely require it of you, and you will be guilty of sin.” Give what is owed to God first.
Deuteronomy 23:24 (ESV) “If you go into your neighbor's vineyard, you may eat your fill of grapes, as many as you wish, but you shall not put any in your bag. If you go into your neighbor's standing grain, you may pluck the ears with your hand, but you shall not put a sickle to your neighbor's standing grain.” Eat what you need or want at the time, but do not steal.
Laws Concerning Divorce
Deuteronomy 24:4 (ESV) then her former husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after she has been defiled, for that is an abomination before the Lord. And you shall not bring sin upon the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance. She is permitted to remarry. “She has been defiled” is in regards to being remarried to her previous husband after having relations with another man.
Miscellaneous Laws
Deuteronomy 24:6 (ESV) “No one shall take a mill or an upper millstone in pledge, for that would be taking a life in pledge.” Do not take as collateral a man’s ability to make a living.
Deuteronomy 24:7 (ESV) “If a man is found stealing one of his brothers of the people of Israel, and if he treats him as a slave or sells him, then that thief shall die. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.” The penalty for kidnaping is death.
Deuteronomy 24:10-11 (ESV) “When you make your neighbor a loan of any sort, you shall not go into his house to collect his pledge. You shall stand outside, and the man to whom you make the loan shall bring the pledge out to you.” A creditor should treat the person to whom the loan was made with respect when collecting the debt.
Deuteronomy 24:12-13 (ESV) And if he is a poor man, you shall not sleep in his pledge. You shall restore to him the pledge as the sun sets, that he may sleep in his cloak and bless you. And it shall be righteousness for you before the Lord your God. If he needs the item given as collateral, it should be returned to him. This doesn’t cancel the debt, it is just showing compassion.
Deuteronomy 24:14-15 (ESV) “You shall not oppress a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your brothers or one of the sojourners who are in your land within your towns. You shall give him his wages on the same day, before the sun sets (for he is poor and counts on it), lest he cry against you to the Lord, and you be guilty of sin." Pay employees promptly.
Deuteronomy 24:16 (ESV) “Fathers shall not be put to death because of their children, nor shall children be put to death because of their fathers. Each one shall be put to death for his own sin.” Each man is responsible for his own sins, and his family is not held accountable at law.
Deuteronomy 24:17 (ESV) “You shall not pervert the justice due to the sojourner or to the fatherless, or take a widow's garment in pledge,” A judge must be fair in all his rulings.
Deuteronomy 24:19a, 20a, 21 (ESV) “When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it. … When you beat your olive trees, you shall not go over them again. … When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not strip it afterward. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow.” We are commanded to be charitable.
Deuteronomy 25:2-3 (ESV) then if the guilty man deserves to be beaten, the judge shall cause him to lie down and be beaten in his presence with a number of stripes in proportion to his offense. Forty stripes may be given him, but not more, lest, if one should go on to beat him with more stripes than these, your brother be degraded in your sight. Criminals must be punished, however they may not be punished past what the law allows for their crimes. Forty lashes was the maximum given for any crime not of a capitol nature.
Deuteronomy 25:4 (ESV) “You shall not muzzle an ox when it is treading out the grain.” Treat your animals humanely.
Laws Concerning Levirate Marriage
Deuteronomy 25:5 (ESV) “If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the dead man shall not be married outside the family to a stranger. Her husband's brother shall go in to her and take her as his wife and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her. And the first son whom she bears shall succeed to the name of his dead brother, that his name may not be blotted out of Israel.” While this does not practically apply today, it does have important spiritual implications when it comes to our salvation and the Messiah. So I am including it. “Dwell together” means in the same community. Compare this to the doctrine that no one may remove your name from the Lamb’s Book of Life but you.
Miscellaneous Laws
Deuteronomy 25:15-16 (ESV) A full and fair weight you shall have, a full and fair measure you shall have, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. For all who do such things, all who act dishonestly, are an abomination to the Lord your God. Do not cheat in your business dealings.
Deuteronomy 25:17-19 (ESV) “Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you came out of Egypt, how he attacked you on the way when you were faint and weary, and cut off your tail, those who were lagging behind you, and he did not fear God. Therefore when the Lord your God has given you rest from all your enemies around you, in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance to possess, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven; you shall not forget." Remember what the Amalekites did to Israel, and know that God hates such people. To blot out their memory is to kill them and their descendants. Amalekites were an ancient nation, actually groups of nomadic raiders living near the land of Canaan in the region of the Negev. They were the first nation to attack the Hebrews after the exodus from Egypt. They attacked the rear of the train, where the very old, very young, the tired and sick would have been. Their tactics were hit quick, take what they could, and run before facing an organized counter attack. They are the archetypal enemy of the Jews. Amalek as a nation is long gone, but their spirit lives on as the enemies facing the Jewish people every day. Amalek seeks Israel’s, and indeed all Jews physical as well as Spiritual destruction. Any group, political party, or religion that seeks the destruction of God’s people are, if we are to be truly obedient, our enemies as well; and we should not tolerate them. Ever!
Par’shah- Deu 23:1–25:19
D’rash: Continuing to name the second half of our parashot after the first verse:
H6951 קָהָל qâhâl; assemblage (usually concretely): - assembly, company, congregation, multitude.
Those Excluded from the Assembly
Deuteronomy 23:1 (ESV) “No one whose testicles are crushed or whose male organ is cut off shall enter the assembly of the Lord.” No male who has had debilitating injuries to the groin shall be allowed into the congregation. The term qahal is used both to mean the Hebrew people and the religious assembly.
Deuteronomy 23:2-4 (ESV) “No one born of a forbidden union may enter the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation, none of his descendants may enter the assembly of the Lord. No Ammonite or Moabite may enter the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation, none of them may enter the assembly of the Lord forever, because they did not meet you with bread and with water on the way, when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you.” 10 signifies testimony, law, responsibility and the completeness of order. In this context it means forever. What we do can have serious consequences for our children. They may not be held responsible for our sins, but they may bear the consequences.
Deuteronomy 23:7 (ESV) “You shall not abhor an Edomite, for he is your brother. You shall not abhor an Egyptian, because you were a sojourner in his land. Children born to them in the third generation may enter the assembly of the Lord." They could live as resident aliens during the time of their prohibition. Then, since they would know the ways and think like Jews, they could join Israel. Odd though, since Egypt had enslaved them and Edom would participate it the destruction of the Temple.
Uncleanness in the Camp
Deuteronomy 23:9 (ESV) “When you are encamped against your enemies, then you shall keep yourself from every evil thing.” Not being home where everyone can see you does not mean you can do as you please. If we expect God to fight with us, we must remain a holy, set apart people.
Deuteronomy 23:12 (ESV) “You shall have a place outside the camp, and you shall go out to it. And you shall have a trowel with your tools, and when you sit down outside, you shall dig a hole with it and turn back and cover up your excrement.” Latrines should be established outside the camp when in the field militarily.
Miscellaneous Laws
Deuteronomy 23:15-16 (ESV) “You shall not give up to his master a slave [the Hebrew ‘ebed designates a range of social and economic roles] who has escaped from his master to you. He shall dwell with you, in your midst, in the place that he shall choose within one of your towns, wherever it suits him. You shall not wrong him." Law concerning extradition. Asylum should be granted when the case warrants it.
Deuteronomy 23:17 (ESV) “None of the daughters of Israel shall be a cult prostitute, and none of the sons of Israel shall be a cult prostitute.” Cult prostitution had a religious component to it, so this was an abomination of two counts.
Deuteronomy 23:18 (ESV) You shall not bring the fee of a prostitute or the wages of a dog [male prostitute] into the house of the Lord your God in payment for any vow, for both of these are an abomination to the Lord your God. Pretty straight forward.
Deuteronomy 23:19-20 (ESV) “You shall not charge interest on loans to your brother, interest on money, interest on food, interest on anything that is lent for interest. You may charge a foreigner interest, but you may not charge your brother interest, that the Lord your God may bless you in all that you undertake in the land that you are entering to take possession of it.” Your brother here is any member of your community or assembly of worship. At the time it would mean any Hebrew. “Foreigners" as distinct from the resident alien who was part of Israel’s social fabric, participating fully in their social welfare system and protected by and subject to their laws.
Deuteronomy 23:21 (ESV) “If you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay fulfilling it, for the Lord your God will surely require it of you, and you will be guilty of sin.” Give what is owed to God first.
Deuteronomy 23:24 (ESV) “If you go into your neighbor's vineyard, you may eat your fill of grapes, as many as you wish, but you shall not put any in your bag. If you go into your neighbor's standing grain, you may pluck the ears with your hand, but you shall not put a sickle to your neighbor's standing grain.” Eat what you need or want at the time, but do not steal.
Laws Concerning Divorce
Deuteronomy 24:4 (ESV) then her former husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after she has been defiled, for that is an abomination before the Lord. And you shall not bring sin upon the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance. She is permitted to remarry. “She has been defiled” is in regards to being remarried to her previous husband after having relations with another man.
Miscellaneous Laws
Deuteronomy 24:6 (ESV) “No one shall take a mill or an upper millstone in pledge, for that would be taking a life in pledge.” Do not take as collateral a man’s ability to make a living.
Deuteronomy 24:7 (ESV) “If a man is found stealing one of his brothers of the people of Israel, and if he treats him as a slave or sells him, then that thief shall die. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.” The penalty for kidnaping is death.
Deuteronomy 24:10-11 (ESV) “When you make your neighbor a loan of any sort, you shall not go into his house to collect his pledge. You shall stand outside, and the man to whom you make the loan shall bring the pledge out to you.” A creditor should treat the person to whom the loan was made with respect when collecting the debt.
Deuteronomy 24:12-13 (ESV) And if he is a poor man, you shall not sleep in his pledge. You shall restore to him the pledge as the sun sets, that he may sleep in his cloak and bless you. And it shall be righteousness for you before the Lord your God. If he needs the item given as collateral, it should be returned to him. This doesn’t cancel the debt, it is just showing compassion.
Deuteronomy 24:14-15 (ESV) “You shall not oppress a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your brothers or one of the sojourners who are in your land within your towns. You shall give him his wages on the same day, before the sun sets (for he is poor and counts on it), lest he cry against you to the Lord, and you be guilty of sin." Pay employees promptly.
Deuteronomy 24:16 (ESV) “Fathers shall not be put to death because of their children, nor shall children be put to death because of their fathers. Each one shall be put to death for his own sin.” Each man is responsible for his own sins, and his family is not held accountable at law.
Deuteronomy 24:17 (ESV) “You shall not pervert the justice due to the sojourner or to the fatherless, or take a widow's garment in pledge,” A judge must be fair in all his rulings.
Deuteronomy 24:19a, 20a, 21 (ESV) “When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it. … When you beat your olive trees, you shall not go over them again. … When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not strip it afterward. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow.” We are commanded to be charitable.
Deuteronomy 25:2-3 (ESV) then if the guilty man deserves to be beaten, the judge shall cause him to lie down and be beaten in his presence with a number of stripes in proportion to his offense. Forty stripes may be given him, but not more, lest, if one should go on to beat him with more stripes than these, your brother be degraded in your sight. Criminals must be punished, however they may not be punished past what the law allows for their crimes. Forty lashes was the maximum given for any crime not of a capitol nature.
Deuteronomy 25:4 (ESV) “You shall not muzzle an ox when it is treading out the grain.” Treat your animals humanely.
Laws Concerning Levirate Marriage
Deuteronomy 25:5 (ESV) “If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the dead man shall not be married outside the family to a stranger. Her husband's brother shall go in to her and take her as his wife and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her. And the first son whom she bears shall succeed to the name of his dead brother, that his name may not be blotted out of Israel.” While this does not practically apply today, it does have important spiritual implications when it comes to our salvation and the Messiah. So I am including it. “Dwell together” means in the same community. Compare this to the doctrine that no one may remove your name from the Lamb’s Book of Life but you.
Miscellaneous Laws
Deuteronomy 25:15-16 (ESV) A full and fair weight you shall have, a full and fair measure you shall have, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. For all who do such things, all who act dishonestly, are an abomination to the Lord your God. Do not cheat in your business dealings.
Deuteronomy 25:17-19 (ESV) “Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you came out of Egypt, how he attacked you on the way when you were faint and weary, and cut off your tail, those who were lagging behind you, and he did not fear God. Therefore when the Lord your God has given you rest from all your enemies around you, in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance to possess, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven; you shall not forget." Remember what the Amalekites did to Israel, and know that God hates such people. To blot out their memory is to kill them and their descendants. Amalekites were an ancient nation, actually groups of nomadic raiders living near the land of Canaan in the region of the Negev. They were the first nation to attack the Hebrews after the exodus from Egypt. They attacked the rear of the train, where the very old, very young, the tired and sick would have been. Their tactics were hit quick, take what they could, and run before facing an organized counter attack. They are the archetypal enemy of the Jews. Amalek as a nation is long gone, but their spirit lives on as the enemies facing the Jewish people every day. Amalek seeks Israel’s, and indeed all Jews physical as well as Spiritual destruction. Any group, political party, or religion that seeks the destruction of God’s people are, if we are to be truly obedient, our enemies as well; and we should not tolerate them. Ever!
