CHAPTER 16
1. Then YHWH spoke to Moshe after the death [akharey mot] of the two sons of Aharon, when they came [too] close to YHWH's presence and died.
What follows is all related to the fact that Nadav and Avihu are dead. We are being called to examine ourselves in light of those who died: Which of their attributes do we want or not want in ourselves? Moshe does not go into detail, probably for Aharon’s sake; he is already heartbroken. Unlike chapter 10, there is no mention of strange fire or possibly being drunk here, only that they were literally “in YHWH’s face”. They were in His house, but what they did was about themselves, and not even corporately but individually. Right in front of YHWH, each was only looking out for his own priorities. The intervening chapters—the dietary and purity laws—are not a switching of gears from this subject or a mere parenthesis, but were given so that we would learn to make distinctions and avoid having the same end they suffered. (11:44ff ) Came too close: literally, "came near", but the Aramaic Targum Onqelos reflects this interpretation. They had taken a liberty they should not have. They may have been feeling particularly special for having just completed the tabernacle and YHWH’s presence being among them, and became too giddy. But no matter how glorious, it was not to be done for self. He loved them, but He does not belong to us; we belong to Him, and must approach Him on His terms. YHWH did not want to have to do this again, especially to Aharon, so He gives him a special insight into the proper protocol for coming close to Him. Even Aharon may not enter the sanctuary in an improper way:
2. And YHWH told Moshe, "Tell your brother Aharon that he shall not come into the sanctuary within the veil in front of the covering which is over the ark at [just] any time, lest he die, because I appear in the cloud [that is] over the covering.
I appear: Rashi and Rashbam render it, “because I must only be seen in the cloud…” Verse 13 tells us the cloud of incense must obscure the ark. We have often been told that YHWH can be approached anywhere and at any time, and that we should “come as we are”. In some ways this is true, but He must be approached on His terms. (See Psalms 149 and 150, for example.) There are particular ways He wants to be approached at certain times, and we are not to come empty-handed. (Deut. 16:16ff) Nadav and Avihu’s error was in bringing the wrong things, so the Torah teaches us what we should bring in which season. (23:40) And we are to rejoice in His presence (Deut. 12:6-12), and to come with our whole hearts and be completely there with our full attention. (Deut. 18:13ff) If we come with a bad attitude, or for selfish reasons, we are bringing “strange fire”, and if we bring things in our hands that have no Kingdom profit, we are really coming empty-handed. Aharon may not just enter whenever he feels like it. As a general rule, he is not to enter at all. But YHWH grants one exception each year…
3. "This is how Aharon shall enter the sanctuary: with a [young] bull (a son of the herd) for a sin offering, and a ram for an ascending offering.
His sons had allowed their emotions to flow freely with no boundaries, so He will give Aharon some very specific parameters within which he must stay. He may come on one day each year—Yom haKippurim. (v. 29) One of the terms for re-entering YHWH’s presence was that blood must be brought. We do not have this system of offerings intact today. So how do we—especially those of the Northern Kingdom who left the Covenant altogether—have any right to enter His presence today? Since our earlier membership was revoked, it is only possible to return because of Yeshua’s merit before YHWH. The king of Israel has authorized us to come in his name. This way YHWH will remember Efrayim as the pleasant son rather than the rebellious one. Many who return to Torah today are overcorrecting and leaving Yeshua behind altogether, though he is the only reason we are back in the Covenant at all. What ingratitude! His job was to deal with the sins committed when our ancestors were still under the Covenant (Heb. 9:15). Without him, it is illegal for us to claim any connection with YHWH. And the reason we are to come is so we can ascend to a higher level by the time we leave again. If we do not correct the things He reveals to be in need of changing, it is most dangerous to return to His presence.
4. “He shall put on a linen coat set apart [for this purpose], and his linen undergarments shall be over his flesh, and he shall belt himself with a linen sash, and shall wrap himself with a linen turban; they are holy garments. And he shall bathe his flesh with water, then put them on.
Many of these actions are more ritual than actually accomplishing anything; we should not treat them as magical, but because YHWH commanded them, there is something in them that He wants us to learn from. They give us more vivid experiences so we will not forget them. Changing clothes is a picture of repentance. Fine white linen robes symbolize righteous works (Rev. 19:8): they are provided for us (Ephesians 2:10), but we must put them on (Mat. 22:12). On Yom Kippur, the high priest only wore half of his garments; he did not wear the ones that he alone used (the efod and breastplate), but dressed just like the other priests. He was thus divesting himself of his glory and identifying with those who supported him in his work. Esther 4 and 5 tell us how to approach the King and why (on behalf of our people, not just ourselves). There is much in Scripture that tells us what it means to be “properly attired” when we come to meet YHWH. When we come at His appointed times, it helps us recognize the significance if we wear something we would not wear at ordinary times or in common places. But the cloth pictures something deeper: being robed in righteousness and justice (Iyov/Job 29:14). We are also to put on strength (our fullest resources) and dress in the armor of light (Rom. 13:12-14), but first we must divest ourselves of the works of darkness. Above all else, we are to put on love (commitment to be there for one another), which is the perfect bond of unity. (Colossians 3:14)
5. "And he shall take from the congregation of the descendants of Israel two goat-kids for a sin offering, and one ram for an ascending offering.
He involves the whole congregation as an additional check against misuse of his role as the highest leader in Israel. They know he is going in and why, and as time went on, the other priests and people held him more and more accountable to do things the right way, so he would not end up like Nadav and Avihu, and the whole nation be left without a covering. Two goat-kids: By rabbinic tradition, they were to be as identical as possible. This is reminiscent of what Yaaqov, a twin, was told to bring to his mother so that he could be as identical to his brother as possible, so that the son she knew to be the right one would actually receive the blessing. It also depicts Yeshua, who came "in the likeness of sinful flesh" and thus bore our sins away from the presence of YHWH. We can become like Yaaqov or like Esau, as seen in Gen. 33:16ff. Esau returned to Seir (which means "goat"), but Yaaqov went on to Sukkoth (the festival that follows Yom Kippur). We must choose which goat we will be like. An ascending offering: We should not appear before YHWH without an expectation to rise to a higher level. He calls us upward to a perspective that is above the world and to ever-increasing holiness. Being in His presence shows us where we stand and where we need to be. On the Sabbath, there is a completion of the old things in our lives; they are behind us once we meet with Him.
6. "Then Aharon shall bring near the bull for his own sin offering, and shall make atonement for himself and his household.
He was held in the highest esteem, so the price was higher for the priest's atonement. He must take the long plank out of his own eye before trying to take the speck of dust out of someone else's. When our sin has been dealt with properly, YHWH wants us to draw near.
7. "And he shall take the two goats and make them stand before YHWH at the door of the Tent of Appointment.
8. "And Aharon shall cast lots over the two goats, one [designated] ‘for YHWH’, and the other ‘for Az’azel’.
The practice by Second temple times was to have two lots in an urn, and take one out in each hand, placing it on the goat that stood beside each corresponding hand. For Az’azel: the phrase is used in modern Hebrew for "to hell". The term is used only here in Scripture, but a mythology grew up around this that Az’azel was the name of a chief of the Se’irim (goat-demons) said to dwell alone in the wilderness. The idea seems to be supported in Yeshay. 34:11-15; Yirm. 9:11; 50:39; Rev. 16:13; 18:2, etc. Other Semitic tribes sacrificed to it, but King Yoshiyahu destroyed the places of their worship. In the book of 1 Enoch, Az’azel is seen as the leader of the “watchers”, fallen angels who educated mankind regarding technological secrets that led them into sin—weaponry and cosmetics as a form of deception. (Chapter 8) It was punished by being bound in darkness under the desert until Judgment Day. The Apocalypse of Avraham counts Az’azel among the unclean birds that tried to disturb the covenant-cutting ceremony in Genesis 15. Others say the name simply denotes a "goat of entire removal" (hence our word "scapegoat"). It may mean “goat that goes its own way”, corresponding with Aharon’s two sons who died. (v. 1) It stems from the term for "female goat", which suggests the male goat is being sent to its counterpart place, also called Az’azel. (v. 10)
9. "And Aharon shall bring the goat on which the lot ‘for YHWH’ fell, and make it a sin offering.
Literally, "make it a sin". The sin becomes embodied in that goat so that it can be dealt with. This forms the context for understanding how Yeshua was “made sin” for us. (2 Cor. 5:21) The term in Hebrew for "sin" and "sin offring" are the same.
10. "And the goat on which the lot ‘for Az’azel’ fell must be presented alive before YHWH to effect a covering over them, in order to be sent to Az’azel in the wilderness.
Presented: literally, "stood up". The goat sent to Az’azel was not for slaughter, but a symbol that there was no longer unexpiated guilt. (Nachmanides) It embodied the whole concept of sin, much like the living bird that was let loose in 14:7. (Compare Z’kharyah 5:6-11.) Later tradition was to actually throw the goat off a cliff to ensure that it would not return to the camp, because apparently it sometimes did, and that would be considered a bad sign. But this may also be a foreshadowing of YHWH's redeeming us back from haSatan, who became our owner by virtue of our having obeyed him. (Rom. 6:16) At any rate it would signal to Az'azel to stay away from Israel because he had no claim on it.
11. "Then Aharon shall bring the bull of the sin offering (which is his own), and shall make atonement for himself and his house, and he shall slaughter the bull of the sin offering which is his own.
12. "And he shall take a firepan full of coals of fire from atop the altar before the face of YHWH, his hands also [being] full of incense finely ground [from] sweet fragrances, and bring it within the veil.
One would think that the last thing YHWH would want Aharon to bring was a firepan, after what his sons had done with one. But “Yom ha Kippurim” can also be read to say “the day that is like Purim”, and because the Book of Esther has no overt mention of YHWH, Purim is said to be a day on which nothing is as it should be. All the incense that was brought to the Temple was already fine (Ex. 30:36), but this was ground even finer, becoming the finest of any incense ever used in the Temple services. Since incense is a picture of prayer, this pulverizing pictures the specific prayer that continues to “pound away” at those who resist YHWH’s will when we know we are not praying amiss.
13. "And he must place the incense on the fire before YHWH, and the cloud of the incense must conceal the atoning cover which is over the testimony; this way he will not die.
The smoke had to go through the veil and remain opaque enough to obscure the ark. Ancient incense did not contain flammable components in itself like the modern types. It was placed on top of coals. Aharon brought a whole shovelful of coals into the Holy Place, and two fistfuls of incense, so this would produce a lot of smoke very quickly.
14. "Then he must take [some] of the blood of the bull and sprinkle [it] with his finger on the front of the atoning cover, on the east. Then he must spatter the blood in front of the atoning cover seven times with his finger.
East: reminiscent of the kh’ruvim guarding the eastern gate to Eden. The Hebrew word also means "ancient", foreshadowing the restoration of the "ancient Adam" through Yeshua.
15. "Then he must slaughter the goat of the sin offering which belongs to the people, and shall bring its blood within the veil, and do with its blood as he had done with the bull's blood--he shall sprinkle it on the atoning cover and in front of the atoning cover.
Goat of the sin offering: that is, the goat designated “for YHWH”.
16. "Thus he shall effect a covering over the Holy Place because of the ritual impurities of the descendants of Israel, and because of their rebellions, [which led] to all their sins. And he shall do likewise for the Tent of Appointment [of the One] that [still] remains with them through their
uncleannesses.
It is easy to become ritually impure, often without even knowing it, and to bring that accidentally into the sanctuary, so YHWH deals with this once per year so we do not have to think about those past mistakes any longer. Rebellions: "transgressions" or willful "crossings of the line”. Impurity is not yet sin, but it is a picture of selfishness--the beginning of a tendency in this direction toward missing the target. (Prov. 18:1-2) Our own desires give birth to sin, which in turn leads to death (Yaaqov/James 1:14ff). Quiet rebellion (passive aggression) can be hidden from others, but is just as deadly. He gives us weapons against it every time we open His Word, but if we do not use them, we will lose them. There is no other sacrifice all year for intentional sins; they have to wait until this time. All other sin offerings are for unwitting sins. Still remains...through their uncleannesses: i.e., despite their impurity, He nonetheless dwells with us, but the covering is needed to make up for our frequent lack of worthiness.
17. "And no man may be in the Tent of Appointment from the time he enters to make atonement in the Holy Place, until he comes out. This way he can make atonement for himself, his household, and for the whole congregation of Israel.
Being covered is not a quick process. Even now on Yom Kippur we reiterate a long list of sins of which we have been guilty without thinking about it. No man: This is what Moshe saw when he killed the Egyptian (on one level, the Egyptian that was still within himself) to defend his brother. By tradition, the high priest had been through the right process of removing the “flesh” to such an extent (depicted in all the frequent bathing and changing clothes and application of blood seen here) that by the time he entered behind the veil, he was no longer human. He is so intent on YHWH’s purpose that he moves “out of this world” for that time. It literally reads, "all of Adam [or the whole man] shall not be in...until he comes out". Dressed in white, he is a picture of the ancient man of light, and nearly all of his flesh is covered. (Ex. 20:26) The point of the priest’s removal of sin is to be able to restore the "man" who is the image of YHWH. As we put off self in order to come into our assemblies, when we leave we must carry YHWH’s priorities with us, and we will be a little bit less “me” each time. When we become one people, we will be “no man”. YHWH has given us all giftings by which to build each other up "into a complete man until the attaining of the full measure of the intended condition of Messiah." Becoming a new man (Eph. 4:20ff) means approaching YHWH as a unified people, not just as individuals—a focus Yaaqov learned after he wrestled with the “man”. Paul speaks in terms of the "measure". This is perfectly timed to fit with the "counting of the measure", the 7 weeks leading up to Shavuoth (Pentecost), when the Head of the restored Adam was "born" and the rest of the Body began to come together—and if that worked, it can be brought to its fullness. YHWH never really desired sacrifice and offering. What they are really about is drawing near to Him.
18. "Then he shall go out to the altar which is before YHWH, and shall effect a covering over it. Then he shall take from the bull's blood and the goat's blood, and shall put it on the horns of the altar, all around.
19. "And he shall sprinkle some of the blood on it with his finger seven times; thus he shall ritually purify it, and render it separate [set apart] from the uncleannesses of the descendants of Israel.
What this ceremony is all about is ridding the community of selfishness.
20. "Now when he has finished making a covering for the Holy Place and the Tent of Appointment, and has brought the living goat near,
21. "then Aharon shall lean both of his hands on the head of the living goat, and confess over it all the guilty crookednesses of the descendants of Israel, and their mis-steps toward all their goings-off-track, and shall designate [that] they [will rest] upon the head of the goat, and send it off into the wilderness by the hand of a man who stands in readiness.
Lean...hands: symbolically transferring the guilt to it. Normally the sinner himself was to transfer his own guilt to the offering, but since the perpetrator of pesha, a rebellious sin, is barred from the sanctuary, he has to be represented by the high priest. Nothing is actually occurring physically; the ritual in itself has no effect unless it is accompanied by genuine acts of repentance by the people. Covering up our sin is not enough. It is a pledge to finish the job once we are better-equipped. Crookedness: or twisting. Much of our crookedness is in our own minds—lying to ourselves so that we can be comfortable with our decisions which no longer line up with the standards, because we do not want to admit we have failed, coming up with “reasons” like “I was a victim”, because we do not want to face the truth that we really are lazy, and it is easier to twist things than to remain faithful over the long haul. We need to make our lives fit Torah rather than twisting it to fit the situations we have gotten ourselves into. A man who stands in readiness: or, a fit man, a chosen man, or a timely man, probably referring to someone used to leading goats, which do not like to be led, or strong enough to carry one if necessary. He is trained and ready to act at the right moment. This would also relate to his being able to get the goat through rough terrain into an "inaccessible" place, where no one would go looking for it. (v. 22) Why be satisfied to just be one of the people who stays back in the crowd, when we could be a “fit” man? Yeshua was always "in season", often saying, "My time has not yet come" (Yochanan/John 7:8, etc.) until it had.
22. "And the goat will carry away all their perversions on itself to an isolated land; so he must send the goat off into the desert.
A parallel ceremony was used in the Babylonian new year festival (Pritchard), and temple purgation rituals (by aspersion, smearing, and incense) were found among the Hittites, Egyptians, and Mesopotamians, but never together with the "scapegoat" ceremony as in Israel. Thus YHWH gave it a new meaning. The power of impurity has to be banished from our midst, the evil sent to a place where it can do no harm. But the goat might come back, just as sometimes we do start to make corrections—even with zeal—but then slack off and allow the same tendencies to return. In Second Temple times, the tradition became an ever-more-elaborate ritual whereby the goat was escorted some twelve miles east of Yerushalayim, to the Rock of Beth Hadudo on the escarpment of the Aravah (Yarden River gorge) at a place called, interestingly enough, Azal. (So “Azazel” might be a variant of Ez Azal—the goat of Azal.) A scarlet cord was tied around its horn, and it was thrown over the cliff to be dashed to pieces on the rocks below. This goes beyond the command to release it, but on the way down, the scarlet cord turned white, indicating that YHWH had removed the people's sins. ("Though your sins be as scarlet, they can become as white as snow', Yeshay. 1:18) A series of signals was relayed back to the Temple courts, whereupon the people began rejoicing loudly. The rabbis noted, though, that 40 years (the appointed time of testing and transition) before the destruction of the Second Temple, the cord stopped turning white. This was exactly the time when Y’shua was slain. So either there is death to self and sin, or just death.
23. "Then Aharon shall enter the Tent of Appointment, and strip off the linen garments that he wore when he went into the sanctuary, and leave them there.
Leave them there: Rashi says he would never use these particular clothes again.
24. "Then he must bathe his body with water in a set-apart place, put on his own garments, come out, and perform his ascending [offering] and the people's ascending [offering], thus effecting a covering over himself and the people.
His own garments: The set-apart garments belonged to the position of high priest, not the individual as such.
25. "Then he shall cause the fat of the sin offering to go up in smoke on the altar.
26. "Then the one who sent away the goat to Az’azel must launder his garments and bathe his flesh with water. Then afterward he may enter the camp.
What he was doing was not sinful, but he was bearing away what represented sin and death. But it never calls him unclean, so the bathing and washing might be more practical than ritual—to rid him of the smell of the goat before he mingled with the rest of the people again.
27. "And the bull of the sin offering and the goat of the sin offering, whose blood was brought to effect a covering over the sanctuary, must be carried to the outside of the camp, and their hides burned with fire along with their flesh and their dung.
28. "And the one who burns them must launder his garments and bathe his flesh with water. Then afterward he may enter the camp.
29. "And this will constitute a never-ending statute: in the seventh month, on the tenth of the month, you must humble yourselves and do no servile labor--the native as well as the [foreign] guest who is staying among you,
Humble yourselves: literally, "afflict your souls", or “suppress your appetites”, expressed most vividly through a complete fast (as has been the tradition at least since the days of Yeshayahu, per chapter 58), but the term also can mean “pay attention to what motivates you” to repent wherever necessary.
30. "because on this [particular] day he shall effect a covering over you, in order to cleanse you from all your sins; before the presence of YHWH you shall be pure.
31. "It is a high Sabbath of rest for you, and you shall humble yourself. [This is] a statute forever.
High Sabbath: the holiest of the holy days; Heb. Shabbaton. Rest: literally, "ceasing". Forever: Even when fullness of the Kingdom comes, this "shadow" or "outline" of it (Col. 2:17; Heb. 8:5; 10:1) is not to cease; rather, that will only be the beginning of the truest observance of this practice, as the Messianic Prince himself will be the one designated to offer the "sacrifices" during the festival times (Ezekiel 45:17).
32. "And the cohen whom he shall anoint, and whose hand he shall consecrate to act in the role of priest in the place of his father, shall form a covering, and shall put on the linen garments--the holy garments.
I.e., the same is to take place every year through all your generations. "Put on linen garments": He had to wear the right clothing in order to effect atonement properly. The cohen was constantly changing clothes in the Yom Kippur ceremony--five times--and each time he had to immerse in water, and had to wash his hands and feet both before and after each. It was a repeated awakening to the solemnity of what he was doing and a reminder to be sure he was doing each part just right, because to break a picture YHWH has designated was something serious enough to bar even Moshe from entering the Promised Land.
33. "Thus he shall make atonement for the Holy Dwelling Place and for the Tent of Appointment; indeed, for the cohanim, and for all the people of the congregation shall he effect a covering.
Wasn't the Holy Place within the Tent of Appointment (the tabernacle)? The fact that both are mentioned here suggests that he is speaking of both the "model" (the physical building which served as a picture of a more real holy place) AND the actual dwelling-place of YHWH--the people He is pulling together into one Temple of living stones.
34. "And this shall be to you a never-ending statute in order to make atonement for the descendants of Israel on account of all their sins, once a year."
And he did as YHWH had commanded Moshe.
Never-ending: Even while still we have no Tent or Temple, we must keep this appointment in some way.
CHAPTER 17
1. Then YHWH told Moshe,
2. "Speak to Aharon and to his sons, and to all the descendants of Israel, and say to them, ‘This is the thing that YHWH has commanded:
When things are left “to each his own”, they do not function as well as when there are multiple layers of organization. Aharon is responsible for himself, his sons, and all Israel. His sons are also responsible to teach and be an example to all of Israel. And the rest of Israel are all responsible for one another. One takes learning much more seriously when he must teach it to others as well. This is to participate in YHWH’s perfection, because He has laid out the pattern.
3. "‘"Any man of the house of Israel who slaughters an ox, or lamb, or goat within the camp, or who slaughters it on the outside of the camp,
4. "‘"who has not [first] brought it in to the entryway of the Tent of Appointment for the purpose of drawing near to YHWH before the dwelling-place of YHWH, that man shall be held liable for [its] blood; he has shed blood, and that man shall be cut off from among his people.
In ancient times, meat was mainly eaten on special occasions such as celebrations or when offering hospitality. Almost any time an animal was slaughtered, it was offered "unto" something; it was rarely simply killed. So this command assured that these were only slaughtered unto YHWH. Many interpret this as referring only to animals slaughtered for worship purposes, but it says “slaughters”, not “brings near”, so it seems to be saying that any animal that could be offered on the altar is to have its blood applied to the altar. The only righteous way to kill an animal worthy of YHWH’s altar is to bring it to YHWH. When the sanctuary exists, what their blood is about is “all Israel”; it is not to be kept solely to oneself as an individual. For an Israelite, even seemingly commonplace things like eating and drinking must be done to His glory (1 Cor. 10:31); how much more the “larger” decisions of our lives? We cannot keep this command literally today, without an altar in place. But we must find the best possible way(s) to practice this. The picture is very close to the surface: But we must not take anything designated for the worship of YHWH and offer it somewhere else, such as to receive accolades for ourselves. As Aharon was represented by the animals in the last chapter, here all of Israel is represented by these animals, and this reminds us that we are a community and not simply a commune; if we are all about taking care of one another, it is not just for economic purposes; it is fruitless if we are not doing so for YHWH’s sake—turning one another over to Him in better condition because we have sharpened one another. In ancient times, livestock were the measure of one’s wealth, for they are true wealth. To describe YHWH’s wealth, Scripture does not say He was a “millionaire”, but that He “owns the cattle on a thousand hills”. Bulls are the most valuable because of all the different uses they have. So what we own are our “animals”—the things that are part of our lives, the things we feed and protect. If we have them out of place, in the wrong order of priority, we may be killing a relationship, someone’s hope or trust, his understanding, or may provide a bad example. He has shed blood: This animal’s slaughter is invalid, and therefore its death is wasted. It could even be called murder. Cut off from his people: YHWH does not define clearly what this means, so there is room to interpret it as is appropriate for each particular case. The rabbis have listed many possibilities of what this could mean: that one is to be executed, that his children will die before he does (a great curse since he has no continuance), or simply that one will have to leave the community permanently. None of these is a pleasant thing. At the very least, relationships with YHWH and with one another will suffer if we keep for ourselves what is meant to be done in the context of the congregation.
5. "‘"For this purpose the sons of Israel must bring their ‘drawings-near’, which they have been offering in the open field, to the priest at the entryway to the Tent of Appointment, and offer them to YHWH as slaughters of peace.
The open field is symbolic of the world at large (Mat. 13:38), in which people worship whatever, wherever, and whenever they choose. Wild animals may be slaughtered there. But we are not to offer our best efforts or our greatest strengths—what we pour out our blood for----to the world, either to make the present world order feel better about itself without regeneration or for worldly benefit to come back to ourselves. If we offer them up to YHWH and His people, the rest of the world will ultimately benefit, but only in this context—when the Kingdom comes in its fullness—and that is not what the world system has as its goal. YHWH stipulates that it be slaughtered behind His fence, and what is slaughtered there must be eaten there, except certain offerings that the priests could take home for their families. And it has to be eaten within two days. (19:6) The only way to eat a bull in two days is to share it—a built-in preventive for selfishness.
6. "‘"Then the cohen shall toss the blood onto YHWH's altar [at the] entryway to the Tent of Appointment, and cause the fat to go up in smoke as a soothing aroma to YHWH.
Fat: the best. At times we may have to give second-best in other contexts, when exhausted or broke or in other ways weakened, but in the context of the Kingdom we must always bring our best. After one has tithed from his flock and given the firstfruits as an additional offering, he must bring about a quarter of what he slaughters to the priest before he can partake of it. This seems oppressive, but actually the exact opposite is true. Israel’s war on individualism allows our everyday lives, even our eating, to be taken out of the realm of selfishness and into the realm of holiness. Like chemotherapy that actually kills some of our cells in order to save our lives, death to self removes many chains from us. While the best we can do today is a remembrance of this command, and it is not necessarily a sin in our exile to eat beef or mutton that has not been taken to a Levitical priest, still, we must pay close attention to what it symbolizes: Anything we raise up ourselves, tend, pay for, nurture, and guard is not ours alone, but if it is worthy of YHWH, it belongs to Him and to all of Israel, not just ourselves. Even feeding our children must be about the Kingdom. They belong to YHWH. Even putting on our shoes can be an offering to YHWH if it is so we can go help our neighbor. YHWH regards it as prostitution when we take our best efforts out of the context of Himself and His people. We are cheating on Him if we give our best to anything else!
7. "‘" And they shall no longer slaughter their sacrifices to goats after which they have prostituted themselves. This is an ordinance [prescribed] forever for them to [all] their generations.
Goats: At least since the Aramaic targums, this term was also associated with a particular class of demons, of the type which some said the “Az’azel” of chapter 16 was the chief. (Compare Yeshayahu/Isa. 13:21.) But goats are clean animals! Why are they YHWH’s rivals? And why does Y’shua make a distinction between sheep and goats (Mat. 25:33)? Because goats are individualists who go off on their own to seek whatever suits their taste rather than staying close together and eating the same things like a flock of sheep do. But there is another connection which is closer to home for us: This Hebrew word for goat (se’ir) is associated with Esau (whose territory was Mt. Se’ir), and like verse 5 here, Esau is called a man of the field (Gen. 25:27), the man of the world, the man who lived only for his belly. He is also connected by his other name, Edom, to blood, which in Hebrew is dam. This type of goat is especially hairy or shaggy. The root word behind se’ir is sa’ar, which means “trembling with fear”, because it is fear that makes one’s hair stand on end. People turn heavily to self because they are afraid of something. The things we dread are what we are truly worshipping, even if we hate them, because we see them, not YHWH, as the ultimate reality. Fear causes us to offer our energies to the wrong things. What can goats—individuals—do for someone as compared to a group with its pooled talents and resources? The smallest act—or attitude--can reverberate throughout the whole of Israel and beyond. Make sure it is profitable to the Kingdom. YHWH chose to befriend not the powerful, but those who were active as shepherds—Avraham, Moshe, David—and thus knew how to give of themselves for those they were caring for. If we fear only YHWH and His removing His presence from us, we are free to fear nothing else. Esau’s twin—his counterpart and opposite—is Yaaqov, the man of tents who was renamed Israel. If we are offering in the open field, we are putting our energy into Esau, not Israel. Bring your offering to the tent, not to the field.
8. "‘"And you shall tell them, ‘Any man of the House of Israel or of the sojourner who stays temporarily among you, who causes an ascending [offering] to go up
9. "‘"but does not bring it to the entry to the Tent of Appointment to do it unto YHWH, that man shall be cut off from his kinsmen.
This is not necessarily talking about sacrifices to pagan deities; it may be an offering to YHWH but in the wrong context. Whether our slaughtering is overtly religious or is just so we have something to eat, we must make sure YHWH’s servants and the rest of Israel get their share. Israel is called to be holier than others are expected to be, and even those who are merely receiving our hospitality need to live up to certain standards while they are in our context.
10. "‘"And any man of the household of Israel, or [any] of the guests who are staying among you, who eats any blood, I will set My face against that person who eats blood, and cut him off from his people,
Guests: particularly strangers or aliens who have settled among Israel to learn about the Elohim of Israel. This prohibition of blood for them as well forms the basis for the Jerusalem council's declaration that those from among the Gentiles who were coming into the faith but who were not to be saddled with the full force of the Torah all at once (Acts 15:20, 21) were to abstain from strangled foods (from which the blood was not properly drained), "and from blood"--as if to drive home the point. Yet even this most basic of requirements for Gentile believers is scarcely obeyed today. Set My face: concentrate His full attention against him. (Compare Y’hezq’El 4:3; Lev. 20:3-6; 26:14-17) That is how serious He is about this!
11. "‘"because the soul of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to effect a covering over your souls, because it is the blood which effects a covering for the soul.'"'"
The soul of the flesh: It is what keeps it alive, but may also be very specific to that type of species, and not intended to be ingested by another, who might take on its characteristics. Blood is life, and that belongs to YHWH, so it is not our right to consume it. Eating blood is telling YHWH, “My life is my own and I will do what I want with it.” Taking into ourselves the soul of a wild beast can make us act like wild animals. Many Satanic rituals include the drinking of blood. But when offered properly, blood exists to cover our souls. This is one of the more obvious foundations authorizing what Yeshua was able to do. Animal blood makes a covering, but it is not of the same value as ours; what was really needed to take away sin was human blood, only there was none untainted by Adam’s fall until Yeshua’s. His was accepted on the heavenly altar of which the earthly one is a picture.
12.
"‘This is why I have told the descendants of Israel, ‘Not a soul among you may eat blood, nor may the sojourner who is staying among you eat blood.'
"‘This is why I have told the descendants of Israel, ‘Not a soul among you may eat blood, nor may the sojourner who is staying among you eat blood.'This does not mean we should not get a blood transfusion to save a life, but people’s personalities have been noticeably changed when they have done so.
13. "‘"Now any man from the descendants of Israel--or any sojourner who is staying among you --who hunts game (animal or fowl) which may be eaten, must drain its blood and cover it with dust,
The animals mentioned in verse 3 are especially clean since they are worthy of the altar, whereas these are simply "fair game" that may be eaten. They do not need to be brought to the Temple, because a wild animal is not acceptable as an atoning sacrifice. What is it about these animals that makes them unfit for the altar? They cannot be selected like those from the herd, from which we can clearly see which are the best; we have to take whatever the field gives. While they may sometimes travel in small herds, they are not led by a shepherd. YHWH does not want to have to hunt for us as He did with Adam. (Gen. 3:9) And because they are so lean from running from predators, they have very little fat, which is one thing YHWH requires upon the altar. Still, what is hunted has to be trapped, then its throat slit, so that the blood, through its premature death, will not coagulate before it can be drained. It cannot be shot from a distance; we must put our hands on it for it to be a kosher kill. An arrow or bullet will render it “torn” (v. 15). Today, what we have trapped represents our commercial dealings. Out of necessity we buy or sell, but YHWH has a say in what we do with it. Hunting was the profession of Esau, so we must be very cautious about participating in it. When outside the Israelite community we are in a foreign land. Those with whom we interact will affect us. The rabbis say a bird could be killed by a stone if one is in dire straits and cannot catch it any other way and he would not be cut off for doing so, but still this is a picture of selfishness, the focus being on the mere survival of the flesh. We are not to “eat” the “blood” of our inevitable brushes with the world outside the walls; its goals are not what we are to be about. As doctors and even police use latex gloves, goggles, and masks to avoid contact with contaminated blood, we must have our spiritual guard up to make sure the “blood” of unholy people does not mix with ours when we must interact with it. We must cover the life of wild things with dust—a picture of the descendants of Avraham. Remember that all we do will affect our fellow Israelites. We should not partake of any relationship which would be detrimental to them. We are not isolationists; the Land of Israel was deliberately placed at the crossroads of three continents so the living out of the Torah could influence other nations toward higher motives. But we cannot become part of them.
14. "‘"because the soul of all flesh is its blood--that is its life, so I am telling the descendants of Israel that you are not to eat the blood of any flesh, because the soul of all flesh is its blood; anyone who eats it shall be cut off.
Yeshua said, “He who finds his own soul will lose it, but he who loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Mat. 10:39)
15. "‘"Moreover, anyone who eats [the carcass of] what died on its own or something torn [by wild beasts], whether [he is] a native or a sojourner, must launder his garments and bathe in water, and he will be ritually unclean until the evening. Then he will be clean.
Compare 11:40 above. We can throw the meat of "torn" animals to the dogs. (Ex. 22:30) But Israelites are not to eat things killed in an unacceptable manner (with other examples seen in verses 13-14). Here there is no actual prohibition against eating these meats, but only the fact that they will render us impure for a time. (They even contaminate the clothes they touch.) But Deut. 14:21 actually forbids them, saying we may, however, sell the meat to Gentiles or give it to the strangers among us—though it still renders them unclean if we do. We must not make it our custom, or it will cost all of Israel something:
16. "‘"And if he does not launder them or bathe his flesh, he will retain his guilt."'"
Retain: or "continue to bear the punishment for." He will remain ritually impure until he does so, and thus barred from the sanctuary. On the other hand, if something is acceptable as an offering to YHWH, then by all means offer it! If it can be brought to the Temple, bring it!
CHAPTER 18
1. Then YHWH spoke to Moshe, saying,
2. "Speak to the descendants of Israel, and tell them, ‘I am YHWH your Elohim.
Verses 2-5, the introduction, are bracketed by two instances of “I am YHWH”, and the phrase also appears in the middle. Verse 6 repeats it in a more specific context. When YHWH uses these words, it signals us that He is going to open up to us some very important aspect of His character so that we can know Him better. Pay attention! He is about to tell us something we need to know about what is important to Him. Who would have thought the Creator of the whole universe would care to tell us what He is all about? But He does not leave us guessing. The Torah is not about morality or humanitarianism, though these may be derived from it; it is about how to know Him intimately. Why focus on things downstream when we can go right to the source? Elohim: The majestic plural, which does not mean there is more than one of Him. It means He has authority over every aspect of His people’s lives, and every day. He knows the best ways to raise our children, what the best things to eat are, and what relationships will be most beneficial to us. His opinion is the important one, and if we follow it, we will have success. This section is an introduction to His rules. They apply not just to the specifics mentioned here, but by analogy to all areas of our lives. As we increase our knowledge of them, we will gain wisdom by which to navigate the paths not explicitly spelled out in the Torah:
3. "‘You must not act according to the pursuits of the land of Egypt in which you lived, nor do as they do [in] the land of Kanaan, to which I am bringing you, nor shall you walk in their customs;
YHWH had also said “I am YHWH” before He promised to bring us out from under the burdens of the Egyptians (Ex. 6:6); He does not want us to go back under those burdens, but if we carry on their traditions, it will be inevitable. We must not live like we were still there. One thing these other nations did was assign different deities to different areas of life. But YHWH does not want to just be the Master of the Sabbath, or just of our religious life or family life, but of our priorities, our time, our finances, and every other part of life—even who we marry (see below), because only He can integrate them all properly. Neither the government, an employer, or our families have a right to overrule His orders in any area of life. As a people, we are “from Egypt”. To this generation, the land of Kanaan was just a memory passed down by great-grandparents. They did not know the lifestyle of shepherds or nomads; the way YHWH defines relationship with Himself is foreign to us because we are used to “Egypt”. If we hang onto the way the Church did everything, we will never know what “I am YHWH” means. To which I am bringing you: We do not want to live like Kanaanites either. But today the “land” YHWH is bringing us into is the realm of the Torah, and when we get there we find that there are indeed already people living there, but this time they are not people we are called to destroy, because they are our brother Yehudah. Still, they have “customs” that we need not carry out in the same way--not referring to the Torah itself, but the rulings on how to live it out. These customs define what has come to be known as “Judaism”. Much of it is valid, but there are some aspects of how it has been carried out in exile that hinder the restoration of the way YHWH said to carry it out in the Land, where much of Yehudah has already returned. Isn’t it arrogant to imagine we could understand some aspects of the Torah better than those who have been walking in it uninterruptedly for generations? Yet when we are told not to eat milk and meat at the same meal, Avraham’s own practice calls this interpretation into question. Maybe this ruling is valid for that one tribe since it does not oppose any Torah command, but Torah does not require that it be the norm for every tribe that returns. All that is required of the rest of Israel is that we not boil a kid in its own mother’s milk. If we become exactly like Yehudah, who will do Yosef’s job? Many other customs of Yehudah were instituted as a way to remember what was once fully alive and operative in the Temple so they would not be forgotten. But now much of what was to be remembered can be restored, yet has not been. The flow of Torah has become jammed by the icebergs of more recent traditions. It is just more baggage that will prevent us from serving YHWH. So how should we walk?
4. "‘[Rather], you shall carry out My legal procedures and observe My prescribed customs, in order to walk within them; I am YHWH your Elohim,
Neither the place from which we are coming nor the place we are being brought sets the rules for how we are to act, but the One who is bringing us there does. Carry out: Actively participate in bringing about His Kingdom; it will not just “happen” magically. It is up to Israel to accomplish this. If we are not willing to die to self to get it done, who else will ever be willing to? This path is not for the lazy. Notice how many places YHWH took us on the way to the Land; we cannot just rest on our laurels at an early stage and retire. Customs: traditions, rituals, everyday actions or those done repeatedly, such as the holy days each week, month, or year. Legal procedures: special situations needing a particular ruling for the sake of societal order, such as what to do if your ox gores someone or you accidentally poke your slave’s eye out. We can draw analogies for what to do if your dog bites a child. The Torah gives us all that we need to settle any such dispute.
5. "‘and you shall guard My customs, which the man who does [them] shall live on account of. I am YHWH.
Guard: another action word, which literally means to build a wall around or hedge in. Do not just do these things yourself, that is; make sure those under your jurisdiction are getting them done, and don’t let anyone change them. This moves up to the congregational, and eventually tribal and national level, for what would a single person need with the “ways of carrying it out”? They are about how we interact as a people. But if we do not see their value, we will not care about guarding them. Y’hezq’El (Ezekiel) 20:11-12 reiterates this, then says the instruction about the Sabbath is given "so that they may know Me". I.e., if we want to know Him, these are the things we must do. The point of all the commandments is to know His heart. The man: literally, Adam. Live: thrive or come back to life. If as one unified man we follow these instructions, Adam (the complete, unmarred image of Elohim) can be resurrected along with the Second Adam, and YHWH will again have someone with whom He can relate. We can then know YHWH the way only someone in His presence (as Adam was) can. The entirety of Torah is the remedy for our not taking responsibility when YHWH asked, “Have you eaten…?” Shifting the blame always ruins a relationship. If we understand YHWH’s testimonies, we will be revived, just as an ammonia ampule makes an unconscious person “come to”. We understand them by walking in them.
6. "‘None of you may draw near to any close relative in order to uncover their nakedness; I am YHWH."
What a way to follow this dignified introduction! But we have not changed the subject. This is one example of not doing things the way other nations did them, and He has been talking about how to know Him intimately; the wrong kind of intimacies will keep us from relationship with Him. This passage will reveal much about the type of interpersonal relationships He intends us to have. Uncover the nakedness: It means more than “do not pull someone’s skirt up”; if taken in the most literal sense, verse 10 would mean we could never even change our grandchildren’s diapers! It is specifically an idiom for sexual relations. This series of commands delimits those who, due to close genetic kinship, are off limits to a man sexually. Adam only felt naked after he disobeyed. If we follow these instructions, YHWH can return us to the Garden.
7. "‘You shall not expose the nakedness of your father or the nakedness of your mother. This is your mother! You must not expose her nakedness!
We now know that this practice poses a high risk of major congenital defects. But "expose the nakedness" could just as well read, "lay vulnerable their undefended parts." (Yosef used the same term to refer to the weakened condition of Egypt during the famine; Gen. 42:9) This gives it a much broader application. It means “Do not leave your parents without a covering.” Taking undue advantage of our relatives is tantamount to thievery. Paul warns us not to endanger a brother by tempting him at his weakest point.
8. "‘You must not expose the nakedness of your father's wife; it is your father's [own] nakedness.
Father's wife: not redundant; in this case, a wife other than your mother if your father has several. This was Reuven's sin (Gen. 35:22; 49:3ff). The nakedness of one person can be another person’s vulnerability. It does not mean one is having physical relations with him too; that is also forbidden in this chapter. But she is under his authority; it leaves him exposed as well. One is taking advantage of a relationship with one who trusts you (Prov. 3:29), and doing wrong to one’s kinsman will weaken a relationship that needs to remain strong. The knowledge of YHWH begins with how we are to treat one another. This is YHWH’s test of how trustworthy we are. We can only really hurt those who trust us and lower their guard. He has defined this as an area over which He is Elohim, so we have a right to expect one another to be dependable. One has never been so naked as when his trust in you has been removed by such a betrayal. One of the things we “wear” is our brothers’ works. We are responsible for our own outer garments, but our works also form the undergarments of our fellow Israelites, for if someone else does not have enough works of his own yet, ours still provide a covering for him. If he is counting on you to do something, you leave him exposed if you do not fulfill your word. When we prove trustworthy, it is as if those who are trusting in us have been covered with a warm, comforting garment. We have been “burned” many times, but once we are in Israelite community, we must trust one another. If we have difficulty doing so, the remedy is to become trustworthy ourselves, for it is a two-way street. B’tzal’El, Aholiav, Aharon, and Moshe did just what YHWH said to do and did it rightly, and we still remember their names well over 3,000 years later.
9. "‘You must not expose the nakedness of your sister--your father's daughter or your mother's daughter, [whether] born at home or born abroad; you must not lay bare their vulnerability.
“Born abroad” (or outside) suggests that it may be a daughter of unfaithfulness, but still we are to protect them.
10. "‘You must not expose the nakedness of your son's daughter or your daughter's daughter; you must not uncover their vulnerable parts, because their nakedness is your own nakedness.'"
Aramaic Targum Onqelos interprets this, "your nakedness is reflected in them". Their vulnerability or weakness is your own, for the chain is only as strong as its weakest link. If one member suffers, we all do. We can never act for ourselves alone once we become part of a family or community. What affects one affects all. If we leave the doors unguarded, the wrong influences have access to anyone in the house. We may not do so deliberately, but someone is still unprotected, and we are no less responsible to “cover him back up”.
11. "‘The nakedness of the daughter of your father's wife, [who is] begotten by your father: this is your sister! You must not uncover her nakedness.
12. "‘You shall not expose the nakedness of a sister of your father; she is a close [blood] relative of your father.
13. "‘You shall not expose the nakedness of your mother's sister; she is a close [blood] relative of your mother.
14. "‘You shall not expose the nakedness of your father's brother--[that is,] you must not come close to his wife; she is your aunt.
15. "‘You must not uncover the nakedness of your daughter-in-law. She is your son's wife; you must not expose her vulnerability.
16. "‘You shall not expose the nakedness of your brother's wife; this is your brother's vulnerability.
Or, "it is your brother's shame". Because of the levirate laws, we know this only applies while one's brother is alive or has sons, because it is actually one's duty to beget sons for a brother who dies without an heir. (Deut. 25:5ff) YHWH considers the bloodline of every Israelite man to be worth preserving this way.
17. "‘You shall not uncover the nakedness of [both] a woman and her daughter; you shall not take her son's daughter or her daughter's daughter in order to uncover their nakedness; they are her close relatives. This is offensive!
18. "‘You must not take a woman along with her sister in order to uncover her nakedness in addition to hers during her lifetime, [which would only] cause her distress.
Cause her distress: vex, harass or cramp her; a prime example is the rivalry between Leah and Rakhel. One could innocently marry his wife’s sister if his wife had died.
19. "‘Neither shall you come near a woman to uncover her nakedness during [the time of] her being off-limits in her uncleanness,
20. "‘nor shall you give your copulation-seed to your neighbor's wife, becoming defiled by her.
This time it is not someone directly related to us. This neighbor might be an Ammonite. His wife would not be defiled by it (they are already defiled), but you would be. “Drink water from your own well” instead of scattering your energy so far from home that you cannot keep up with your real responsibilities. (Prov. 5:15) She might have your children; from a distance, how can you be sure they will live as Israelites?
21. "‘Now, you must never cause any of your seed to pass through [the fire] for Molekh and [thus] profane the name of your Elohim. I am YHWH.
Notice the similarity in wording to v. 20: in one case the seed is given to a family other than one's own; in the second case, to another deity, which YHWH also regards as adultery. Molekh was a Kanaanite deity to whom people sacrificed their children. Archaeology has turned up urns filled with infants’ bones on which “to Molekh” is inscribed, and the names of those offering them had names ending in “-yah”; showing that they were Israelites. This was done in the Hinnom Valley outside Yerushalayim, and because this custom was so sickening to YHWH, the righteous king Yoshiyahu changed it to a dumping ground where garbage was burned, since it was no longer fit for any nobler use. (2 Kings 23:10) Hence “Gehenna”—the corrupted form of Gey Hinnom—as a place where the fires never go out. Few modern people would fail to be horrified by such a practice. But how does this apply to us now? Molekh means “the one who rules”. “Fire” is only implied because of historical knowledge; the actual text is really telling us not to turn our children over to the one that rules, and people today do this in many ways—the “prettier form of child abuse”: by making them give up their childhood so their parents can become wealthy by capitalizing on their children’s talents, or, on the other hand, by giving them too much of what they want. We must not let our children think they are the ones that rule. Such spoiling makes them think they are royalty; even David’s own children (who really were royal) turned out that way. Letting them whine and complain only makes them useless to the community. The learned and wise—those who know how to serve—are to be the ones that rule. Why should a farmer cultivate his crops, only to let them rot? YHWH weighs us by our fruit, including how our children turn out; our flaws can become theirs if we do not guard against it. Profane the Name: treat Him as if He were just one among many equals. If concern for our children stands in the way of obedience to YHWH, we are still offering them to idols, no matter how much we may be sacrificing for them.
22. "‘Neither may you lie with a male as one lies with a woman; this is an abomination.
Neither: so the two are connected. The reason both of these things turn YHWH’s stomach is because they are fruitless; both leave you with no children. So sodomy is hardly different from passing your children through the fire to Molekh. The result is the same—no continuance. The term “abomination” is often used very specifically to mean an idol. In ancient times, this practice was not so much done for pleasure as it is today. Kanaanites did this in a religious context: it mainly took place in temples as part of worship to particular elohim rather than with a long-term partner. But is it really not done in a religious context today? Homosexuality is often a man’s way of worshipping someone who is just what he wants to be, but whom he is not willing to take the hard road to becoming.
23. "‘Nor may you give your lying down with any animal, which results in being defiled thereby; nor shall a woman stand in front of an animal in order to copulate with it; this is a perversion.
Lying-down: a shortened version of the compound Hebrew word for semen ("copulation seed"), as in v. 20. Perversion: confusion, a violation of nature; a mixing of two things that should remain distinct.
24. "‘Do not defile yourself with any of these, since because of all of these [things] the nations which I am indeed expelling before your face have defiled themselves,
25. "‘and the Land is defiled, and I will punish its crookedness, and the land will disgorge its inhabitants.
The Land is defiled: probably by diseases like AIDS that would result from such practices. There is a limit to what YHWH will take. Y’shua said we should forgive our brother “seventy times seven”. But that is still a finite number. It was indeed 490 years as well from the time Avraham began to be a light to the Kanaanites until Y’hoshua carried out this sentence and cut them off from the Land because they did not repent when given many occasions to do so, unlike Nin’weh, which repented when Yonah warned it of the consequences of its evil ways. The undercurrent here is, “Make sure you do not do the same thing, or you will receive the same consequences.” 490 years is all He allowed Yehudah in particular to neglect the practice of giving the Land a rest every seven years, before He expelled them from the Land for 70 years so it could have the rest they owed it. (26:34-35) The Northern Kingdom was “vomited out” of the Land because they worshipped pagan deities, which may have been fun for twenty minutes, but the Land became glutted with it. These were our ancestors, so we are inclined to these things. We have an even larger task than they did, because we not only have to guard the Land, but also to repair what they broke.
26. "‘But as for you, you must guard My customs and My procedures of justice, and not carry out any of these repulsive things--the native-born or the guest who is staying among you.
We are responsible to see that anyone who is within our gates behaves accordingly to the rules written on these gates, even if they are just visitors who may not agree with them. If even they are allowed to mistreat or mislead anyone while they are here, it is as if we had cooked a delicious stew only to have someone throw bacon in it at the last minute.
27. "‘The men of the Land that is before you have done all of these repulsive things; thus the Land is defiled.
28. "‘That way the Land will not disgorge you for defiling it, as it [has begun] vomiting out the nation that is before you--
29. "‘because anyone who does any of these abominations--indeed, the individuals who are carrying them out--must be cut off from the part of their people who are nearest.
30. "‘Rather, guard what I have entrusted to you, and thus stay away from performing any of the disgusting customs which were done before you, or defiling yourselves with them; I am YHWH your Elohim.”
We often do not appreciate the fact that we have a treasure to guard until it is taken from us. If we are on our guard, and get it right this time, we will not be as likely to be spit out of our Land again.
TORAH PORTION
Akharey Mot
(Leviticus 16-18)
INTRODUCTION: When the terrible tragedy of the loss of two of Aharon’s sons took place, YHWH did not leave us without warning as to how to avoid the recurrence of something similar. The particulars of Yom Kippur are His direct response to us as to how to keep His sanctuary and His people holy and how to deal with the times we don’t quite get that right.
Here we also find the principle that blood is a covering for our souls. That is primary to understanding not just why YHWH allowed such practices which some today consider “barbaric” as well as laying the foundation for one of the main tasks the Messiah accomplished on his first visit to our ancient Homeland—the time that sins could be more than just covered up, but actually permanently dealt with. But each step in these offerings gives us more detail about the meaning of his offering of something better than an animal and something more perfect than any of us can present, and how it can still cover us—and more—during this time when we do not have the sanctuary or any of these other offerings, because, make no mistake: we do need it, even if it is not available to us now. So we had better pay attention to what has been given to us as the way to draw near.
Why was there a central place established where we need to come if we want to meet with YHWH? This, too, is a picture of the one Way we must enter if we want to find Truth and Life.
YHWH also tells us here where we should not draw near—i.e., who is off-limits to one type of intimate relations so that other types of intimacy with them may thrive within safe boundaries. And He lets us in on some intimate “secrets” about what He finds most repulsive, so that we can remain on good terms with Him as well.
Though we are not to add to YHWH’s words in any universally-required way, all of these particulars are samples of principles that have wider applications to analogous situations we encounter every day if we consider carefully what the underlying attitudes and motives are. So pay attention to the undercurrents—the “why” of each command.
The exact wording of the Hebrew is important, because while the context of these particulars would lead us to interpret what is implied in terms of the rituals, the broader significance of the actual words can tell us more about what it is we are acting out. (See note on 18:21 for an example of this.)
Yeshua says we should indeed pay attention to the details, but in the process should not miss the “forest for the trees”: the more important, “weightier” matters like judgment (justice), mercy (or lovingkindness), and faith (or faithfulness). He has covered the gap we may leave between our attempts to obey and the perfect expression of how each command can be kept when all the right things are in place, so rather than fearing the curse that came with imperfect observance before he lifted that burden off us, we can pay attention to what each aspect of the commands is saying to us about these bigger concerns about how we treat one another, so that we can accurately reflect the way He has treated us.
Study Questions:
1. Why do you think the command in Leviticus 16:2 was given at this particular time?
2. Why is it important that the flesh be washed and covered (16:4) when appearing before YHWH? (Gen. 6:3, 12 and 2 Chron. 32:8 set the tone for our understanding of Scripture’s specialized use of the term "flesh".)
3. What must Aharon do before he can benefit anyone else? (16:6)
4. Why is this whole elaborate ritual necessary? (16:16)
5. Why is the goat given “to YHWH” through death? (16:9) Why is the goat which is not “for YHWH” sent away? (16:10, 21-22) Can either of them permanently take away our guilt? (16:34) Why must it be repeated every year?
6. What do you think it means to “afflict your souls” (16:31)? What was one way this was interpreted since ancient times? (Yeshayahu/Isa. 58:5) Is that all it should involve? What does Yeshayahu 58:10 say would bring the command to its real fulfillment? (See 58:6-9 for more clues.)
7. What seems to be assumed will accompany every slaughter of an animal for consumption (17:3-9) What does centralizing the slaughtering-site do for what would otherwise be random worship? How does 1 Corinthians 10:31 shed light on what this physical focus is meant to teach us in regard to other areas of our lives?
8. Aside from healthy dietary considerations, what is the
main reason given that we
should not eat blood?
(17:10-11) What does it
need to be reserved for?
How does the Hebrew of
verse 11 show why blood
can be accepted as a
covering for another?
9. Does the blood matter even when an animal is not killed for religious purposes? (17:13-14) What might taking the soul-life of an animal into ourselves do to our own mental or physical constitution?
10. Compare Lev. 18:3 with Y’hoshua (Joshua) 5:13-14. What can you learn about how to think when you face a decision, especially when none of the usual options seem ideal?
11. What particular customs of the nations is He telling us not to participate in? (18:6-23) What one factor do they all have in common? What is the consequence of their customs? (18:24-25) Would the result be any different for us if we did the same, if we are His chosen people? (18:26-29)
12. Are we ever really left with only the choice of two unacceptable opposites? (Leviticus 18:1-5) Can you think of any examples when YHWH has given you an unexpected option that amazed you by how well it resolved the difficulties in the other options?
13. What sin/crime is YHWH prohibiting in Lev. 18:6 and its specific examples in 18:7-16? What sort of problem(s) does obedience to this principle automatically preclude?
14. What do you think 18:10 means when it says “their [your children’s] nakedness is your own nakedness”?
15. How do verses 18:17-20 differ from the series of offenses that immediately precede them in the listing? What social and/or societal problems do they preclude?
16. How would 18:22 really make us set apart from the nations around us today?
17. What practical reason does YHWH give for adherence to these directives (18:24-30)? What is the more important, underlying reason for obeying them? What third, and most ultimate, reason is given within these verses for why we should heed them?
Show a Little Respect!
This Torah portion covers a lot of territory, from the Yom haKippurim ceremony to all those laws about whose nakedness we shouldn’t uncover. That latter part is basically saying, “Don’t marry too close to your own bloodline.” Science has indeed confirmed that too much inbreeding concentrates genetic disorders that close relatives might share, making them more likely to be the dominant traits.
What else is here that is relevant for us today, in the modern world? A major theme that runs through all these widely-varying rules is giving respect or honor where it is due, and this has wider applications than those in the immediate context:
(1)Respect for what is holy: That is religious jargon for what in Hebrew basically means “special”, “unique”, “dedicated”, or “set aside in a separate category.” Once we learn the concept that certain things are off limits to us (16:16), it carries over very easily to respecting what belongs to other human beings, making us hesitant to steal or destroy someone else’s property. Hand in hand with this goes…
Respect for what is holy: That is religious jargon for what in Hebrew basically means “special”, “unique”, “dedicated”, or “set aside in a separate category.” Once we learn the concept that certain things are off limits to us (16:16), it carries over very easily to respecting what belongs to other human beings, making us hesitant to steal or destroy someone else’s property. Hand in hand with this goes…(2)Respect for life and living things: If we have to take the life of something else so that we may survive, we incur a sense of guilt, just as when we have to kill in war to defend our own and our loved ones’ lives. And this is a genuine cause for concern. (17:4) YHWH gave us the silver half-shekel “tax” so that we have a way to pay for what we have done (Ex. 30:13), and thus we no longer feel that we have benefitted without giving anything in return. Here, similarly, we pour out the blood in a designated place (where depends on whether it is raised or hunted). This gives us a sense of the score being evened up again. YHWH accepts the blood, if kept within particular parameters (17:13-16), as a covering (a payment) for the life we have taken. (17:11) When we have so much power that we can even deprive other species of life itself, we must keep that power under control, and this leads to another focus of this portion:
Respect for life and living things: If we have to take the life of something else so that we may survive, we incur a sense of guilt, just as when we have to kill in war to defend our own and our loved ones’ lives. And this is a genuine cause for concern. (17:4) YHWH gave us the silver half-shekel “tax” so that we have a way to pay for what we have done (Ex. 30:13), and thus we no longer feel that we have benefitted without giving anything in return. Here, similarly, we pour out the blood in a designated place (where depends on whether it is raised or hunted). This gives us a sense of the score being evened up again. YHWH accepts the blood, if kept within particular parameters (17:13-16), as a covering (a payment) for the life we have taken. (17:11) When we have so much power that we can even deprive other species of life itself, we must keep that power under control, and this leads to another focus of this portion:(3)Respect for those who are most vulnerable: Those who are closest to us (18:6-16) would be most easily threatened if we were to take advantage of our unhindered access to them, so YHWH gives them the protection of the sanctity of a taboo, knowing that while “a word to the wise is sufficient”, most people are just not that wise, and need additional motivation to do the right thing. Our neighbors (18:20) are supposed to be able to trust us not to abuse the easy access we have to both them and their possessions. (Compare Proverbs 3:29.) And this is just one of many applications of…
Respect for those who are most vulnerable: Those who are closest to us (18:6-16) would be most easily threatened if we were to take advantage of our unhindered access to them, so YHWH gives them the protection of the sanctity of a taboo, knowing that while “a word to the wise is sufficient”, most people are just not that wise, and need additional motivation to do the right thing. Our neighbors (18:20) are supposed to be able to trust us not to abuse the easy access we have to both them and their possessions. (Compare Proverbs 3:29.) And this is just one of many applications of…(4)Respect for others’ dignity: Just as a woman could marry two brothers if the first one died childless, it is apparently not a big genetic risk for a man to marry two sisters (18:18). But it must be at separate times, because the story of Rachel and Leah (Gen. 29-30) shows to what lengths of suspicion, intrigue, and trickery people are tempted to go when rivalry becomes a factor—when they feel they have to compete and constantly compare their performance in marriage, which is meant to instead be a relaxed, healing relationship. YHWH precludes even feeling the need for such undignified behavior by closing this one simple door. And again this broadens to the concept of…
Respect for others’ dignity: Just as a woman could marry two brothers if the first one died childless, it is apparently not a big genetic risk for a man to marry two sisters (18:18). But it must be at separate times, because the story of Rachel and Leah (Gen. 29-30) shows to what lengths of suspicion, intrigue, and trickery people are tempted to go when rivalry becomes a factor—when they feel they have to compete and constantly compare their performance in marriage, which is meant to instead be a relaxed, healing relationship. YHWH precludes even feeling the need for such undignified behavior by closing this one simple door. And again this broadens to the concept of…(5)Respect for limits on our freedom: Even the high priest could not just come into the sanctuary any time he wanted. (16:2) So why should we complain if we are not free to do certain things that might seem fascinating, but would end up endangering one another with diseases, mutations, or possibly even grotesque new species (18:21-24) which could all be avoided if we would just heed the wisdom of Someone who knows the horrific extremes to which these slippery slopes could lead (18:24-27)? Just as we should concentrate our worship on YHWH rather than spreading it thinly over so much spiritual territory (17:3-9; 18:3-5), neither should we dissipate our powers of procreation so far and wide that we no longer have influence over our own offspring. (18:20) And that is just one way we can show…
Respect for limits on our freedom: Even the high priest could not just come into the sanctuary any time he wanted. (16:2) So why should we complain if we are not free to do certain things that might seem fascinating, but would end up endangering one another with diseases, mutations, or possibly even grotesque new species (18:21-24) which could all be avoided if we would just heed the wisdom of Someone who knows the horrific extremes to which these slippery slopes could lead (18:24-27)? Just as we should concentrate our worship on YHWH rather than spreading it thinly over so much spiritual territory (17:3-9; 18:3-5), neither should we dissipate our powers of procreation so far and wide that we no longer have influence over our own offspring. (18:20) And that is just one way we can show…(6)Respect for later generations. If we choose courses of life that are not fruitful (18:21-23), we jeopardize those who come after us, or even our own continuance. Aside from the mere fact that it saved countless children a cruel, painful death (and YHWH does not want to be seen as one of the gods that would require such a thing), He gave us a head start by informing us that sacrificing our firstborn would not grant us more fertility later (17:21), as so many pagans believed. He saved us the trial and error of finding that out the hard way, so that those who might only have one child would not waste their only shot at having a posterity.
Respect for later generations. If we choose courses of life that are not fruitful (18:21-23), we jeopardize those who come after us, or even our own continuance. Aside from the mere fact that it saved countless children a cruel, painful death (and YHWH does not want to be seen as one of the gods that would require such a thing), He gave us a head start by informing us that sacrificing our firstborn would not grant us more fertility later (17:21), as so many pagans believed. He saved us the trial and error of finding that out the hard way, so that those who might only have one child would not waste their only shot at having a posterity. For the best results, follow the instructions! If you respect these restrictions, you will thrive (18:5), because though they may seem to cramp our style, they keep us focused. By staying within these boundaries, we keep to where the current flows best, and avoid getting bogged down in things that would waste both precious time and energy, and worse, cause untold harm to many people.
Companion Passage:
The Sidewalk
for Kids
Are there some things in your house that are special—that are not used for anything but one particular thing? Maybe you have dishes or silverware that you only use on Shabbat or the Festivals. Maybe there’s a special chair that belongs to your Dad or Mom, that you don’t dare get into so that you don’t scratch it up or get it dirty. When you were smaller, was there something you weren’t allowed to touch at all because if it got broken it would be impossible to replace?
YHWH had some special things too, and when Aharon’s two sons were not being careful about how to handle them, He got upset. We read about that a few chapters ago, but in this part of the Torah, YHWH gives us some ways to keep that from taking place again. A lot of times we don’t even realize we are getting His things dirty. So He also gave us a way to cover up the stains we put on His special things. We know it as Yom Kippur, the day we show YHWH how sorry we are for what we have done wrong by not eating or doing anything to make ourselves feel good.
Later on, someone very special would come and actually clean them up, but the best we could do was cover them until then, because we just don’t have what it takes to fix things that are pictures of what goes on in heavenly places.
YHWH gave us these pictures because they teach us things about Him, and they have to remain pure to give us the right picture of Him. Our own work we can do the way we want, as long as the job gets done rightly and it doesn’t hurt anyone else or damage what someone else owns. But when YHWH gives us instructions, we need to do them exactly as He says, because every detail teaches us something, and if we change any of them, everything gets out of balance and we will learn the wrong thing.
That’s one reason YHWH said there was only to be one place to bring offerings to Him, so that people didn’t do things the way they wanted to without being guided by someone who knew the rules well. There are certain ways to come close to the place that represents Him (because He is really everywhere), but again, it is a picture of the fact that He is so pure and holy that we have to approach Him in the way He chooses, when He chooses, and with the kind of blood He can accept, because even though we may have the best intentions, not everything works to deal with the problems we have caused by disobeying Him, even though we did not try to do that.
He tells us here that we can’t do things the way they did in Egypt or the way we would see them do things when we got to Kanaan, but we have to do it His way. Is this because He is selfish or mean or just doesn’t want us to have fun? No! In His great mercy, He gave us a shortcut so we don’t have to keep trying and failing until we finally figure out what satisfied Him. He gave us a way to make things right, but we have to do it the way He says, or it just won’t work. And we do want it to work, don’t we?
The Valley of Hinnom today
Photo courtesy of the Temple Institute
Photo courtesy of the Temple Institute
The Renewal of
AKHAREY MOT
“YHWH said to Moshe, “Tell your brother Aharon that he must not come at [just] any time into the holy place inside the veil, before the ark-cover which is upon the ark; so that he may not die...” (Leviticus 16:2) He gave him just one time all year to come inside and put himself in that danger: Yom Kippur.
To be qualified to present the offerings for the nation, he first had to be sure his own sins were covered: “And Aharon shall present the bull of the sin-offering, which is for himself, and make a covering for himself, and for his house.” (Lev. 16:6)
The Letter to the Hebrews in the Renewed Covenant echoes this concept and carries it a step further: “Every high priest who is selected from the sons of Adam…is himself also limited by weakness; for this reason he also needs to bring an offering for sins in relation to himself, just as [he does] on behalf of the people…”
We are familiar with the amazing contrast of the one “who does not have day-to-day needs like the one who brings offerings near first for himself and afterward on behalf of the whole assembly of Israel…He brought himself one time to be a drawing-near [offering].” (Heb. 5:1-3; 7:26-27)
But the Renewed Covenant also compares the priest who must first deal with his own sins with those of us who, being imperfect, must confront others who need a reprimand: First, Yeshua’s famous simile about taking the log out of our own eye first before trying to get the splinter out of someone else’s. (Matithyahu 7:3-4) But there’s also Paul’s admonition, “if a man be overtaken in a fault, you who are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meekness; watching out for yourself, lest you also be tempted.” (Galatians 6:1) On the other hand, Yeshua’s brother Yaaqov tells us, “the one who turns the sinner back out from [the] error of his way will rescue a soul from death, and will cover over a bundle of sins” (James 5:20)—apparently both theirs and his own.
“He shall make atonement for the holy place…” Why would a building or tent need to be atoned for? Did it sin? The key is that it was “because of the uncleannesses of the descendants of Israel, and because of their transgressions, and all their sins; and he shall do the same for the tent of meeting, which sits with them in the midst of their uncleannesses.” (Lev. 16:16, 30)
Just as we (women probably more so) would be hesitant to sleep in a barn that was full of live animals because of the stench of latrine-less stalls, we were so inured to our environment that we did not realize how spoiled and contaminated a “normal” human camp—or even a city, later--was in comparison with what YHWH was used to.
The reason we are commanded to eat no blood, even of non-altar animals, is that “the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls, because it is the blood which effects a covering for the soul.” (Lev. 17:11) It seems rather cryptic as to how, until we get to the Renewal of Covenant in which Yeshua identifies his blood as being “shed for us.” (Luke 22:20)
What did he mean? He was referring to what Yeshayahu/Isaiah prophesied: “It pleased YHWH to bruise him; He has put him to grief: when You shall make his soul an offering for sin, …he shall see of the labor of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the great …because he has poured out his soul [=life=blood] unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he carried [away] the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.” (Isa. 53:10-12)
“By the authority of the Torah’s commands, … without the shedding of blood there is seen no covering of anything… It is necessary that every blueprint and every pattern of the things that are in the heavens be purified by things like this; reliable things—the substantive heavenly [things themselves]—are purified by slaughterings better than [these] good things and more forceful than they. For the Messiah did not enter into the sanctuary that was built by hands—a model, a shadow of the real ones--but through what he established, he enters into the heavenly [one] on behalf of what will appear at the time that yet remains in the presence of Elohim. Also, he does not bring himself near [as an offering] many times, like the high priest who … comes near every year with sprinkled blood… Our Messiah was presented only one time to make a covering over the crookednesses of many, and… will let himself be seen by those who [expectantly] wait for him, without [any connection to] sin, for an eternal deliverance.” (Heb. 9:22-28)
“Being undeservedly declared [to have the] right standing … through the ransom that [comes] through Messiah Yeshua, whom Elohim has set forth openly as [being] an acceptable means of appeasing wrath on account of trusting in [what his] blood [has accomplished].” (Romans 3:24-25)
The appropriate response to His providing this covering for us is: “Don’t do like they did in the land of Egypt, where you lived, and don’t do like they do in the land of Canaan, into which I am bringing you; don’t walk in their statutes either. You must carry out My ordinances, and keep My statutes, to walk therein; I am YHWH your Elohim.” (Lev. 18:3-4) Don’t live like other nations; you are a unique people!
Though the Renewed Covenant began the fulfillment of the many prophecies in the Psalms and prophets that the Gentiles would come to recognize YHWH and turn to Him, still it echoes this Torah view of how futile the ways of the Gentiles are:
“You were [not “are”] Gentiles, carried away by mute idols.” (1 Corinthians 12:2; compare Ephesians 2:11) It explains very directly that “the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they offer to demons” (1 Corinthians 10:20) which lie behind the idols that depict them. So Paul told them “henceforth not to walk as other nations walk, in the vanity of their mind.” (Eph. 4:17; compare 1 Thessalonians 4:5) “For the time that has [already] passed by is enough for us to have carried out the purposes of the Gentiles...” (1 Kefa/Peter 4:3) Instead, “I urge you as [those who are] foreigners and sojourners, keep yourselves from appetites for what is forbidden, which wage war against the soul, holding yourselves to surpassingly-commendable behavior among the Gentiles, so that in whatever way they [may] defame you as “evildoers”, they may acknowledge the worthiness of YHWH… [because they] have seen [the evidence] from your beneficial deeds.” (1 Kefa 2:11-12)
Among many commands here about our conduct, we are told “You must not lie with any beast to defile yourself with it; nor shall any woman stand before a beast, to lie down thereto; it is perversion.” (Lev. 18:23) If we had not heard stories of people actually doing that—even an infamous queen—we might not believe such an obvious thing had to be pointed out. After all, someone taking his father’s wife was “unheard of even among the Gentiles”. (1 Cor. 5:1) But it must have seemed just as obvious to YHWH that a man was not designed to have sexual relations with another man, yet He found people doing so despite how unnatural it is. So He even had to mention things that turned His “stomach”. He continues, “Do not defile yourselves in any of these things; for in all these the nations are defiled, which I cast out from before you, and the land was defiled; that’s why I punished it for its iniquity...” (Lev. 18:24-25)
But another reason He had to speak about not lying with a beast may be that He realized that one day there will be a figurative “beast” that people would prostitute themselves with in deeper ways:
“I saw a woman sitting on a… beast, full of blasphemous names… The woman …[had] a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication. And on her forehead was a name written, ‘…the Mother of Harlots’… The [kings] you saw on the beast will hate the whore, and make her desolate and naked, and eat her flesh, and burn her with fire, because Elohim has put it in their hearts to fulfill His will…until [His] words be fulfilled.” (Rev. 17:3-5, 16-17) For beasts may be powerful, but they can turn on you and tear you to pieces too. (Mat. 7:6)
Remember this well; that day is getting closer.
Purity with a Purpose
“YHWH told Moshe, ‘Tell your brother Aharon that he shall not come into the sanctuary within the veil in front of the covering which is over the ark at [just] any time, so that he will not die…’” (Lev. 16:2)
Isn’t that the story of the whole Torah? YHWH gives us ways to avoid repeating the disaster that just came about because we did not do something the way He said to do it. Starting back in the Garden, He put fences in place so we would not get burned. He hurried us out of that environment with an urgency never seen before and posted frightening sentries at the gates to Eden lest we eat of the Tree of Life.
Wait! What’s so kind about that? Oh, it’s the kindest thing He could have done (other than telling us not to eat of the other tree, which we ignored). Adam and Hawwah (Eve) had just changed the genetic structure of all of their children into something mortal for the first time. We were truncated, no longer complete human beings. To eat something that would keep us alive forever in that condition would be unimaginably tragic. The only way to get the death out of us now was to let it finish its course. Back then it took much longer; in His mercy, after life had become all but unbearable, YHWH drastically shortened our lives in this age. Thank You, Abba. The Age to Come is our home, when earth is restored to what it was meant to be--or as close to that as is possible before it is melted down and really recast.
Back to the “present”. Another tragedy has now just occurred. Those just inaugurated into the holiest service made a lethal error, and again, YHWH wants to keep this from being repeated. Now no one can come into YHWH’s immediate presence anymore at all except one man, one day per year. Then a whole slew of other urgent “thou shalt nots” to keep us common people out of trouble as well, because, well, He doesn’t want any of His people to be common—not the kind of common that has become normative in the present age. He wants us to show the world that there can be something different.
“Be a set-apart people.” (19:2; 20:24-26) What is that? Racism? Today’s oversimplifiers would have us think so, to again divide and conquer people among whom past rifts had healed. No. It has nothing to do with color or features; folks of every stripe have always been able to join the people YHWH was calling out. It’s about keeping His priceless cure uncontaminated by other influences, because if anything is “systemic”, it is the sin that affects everyone of every genetic strain. If any “race” becomes “supreme” it will just systematize its own form of sin, and if another gains ascendancy, it won’t solve anything at the root either; it can only substitute one brand of corruption for another. History shows over and over that political revolt, no matter what its form, only makes things worse for most and easier for just a few.
A much more comprehensive solution is needed, and that is what YHWH provided. At first it seems restrictive to our natural tendencies, but again He’s just fencing us off from much greater heartache. He set parameters so the human race could stay alive long enough for His real revolution to reach full maturity.
It starts with a holy people who care for the poor (but don’t exempt them from justice either), who deal honestly with each other (19:9-18), honor the wisdom of the experienced, and treat outsiders with the same dignity as insiders (19:32-36)—an environment for truth to survive till the “fullness of time” when a Second Adam can not just restore scattered Israel (Isa. 49:6) but give the whole race (and yes, there is really only one) the option of rejoining the original humanity that was lost when that fruit changed our whole “system”—all in one bloc. In mercy He let that occur in the first generation so no one would have an advantage over the rest. We all need His refashioning—and it is available.
Once redeemed and regenerated, Israel is to bear that message to every tribe, so we must learn to make the kind of distinctions YHWH does (20:25-26), so His well-guarded remedy won’t be compromised.
YHWH’s Guard Rails are for Our Safety
YHWH directly addressed Aharon’s grief and probably his hesitancy to stay in this role that had just cost his sons their lives. It shows His compassion and willingness to put more safeguards in place so His people could continue to have access to Him. (16:1ff) How much more did He show this love by offering His own "lamb" so that we sinners could come boldly to ask Him for help? (Romans 5:8; Heb. 4:16)
YHWH gave Aharon a way to deal with his own imperfection (which is what “sin” really means). (16:3) Then he could deal with the rest of the people’s sins. (16:5) But not without blood: “I have given it to you on the altar to make a covering over your souls.” (17:11) Anyone who says we can deal with sin without blood is not reading his Torah. YHWH is also the One who gave us His lamb’s blood as a covering. (Rom. 3:25)
Other safeguards included protective clothing (16:4) and cleansing of the flesh, dirtied by interaction with this corrupted world. And a burnt offering—the privilege of just having something to offer up completely to the One who did not have to make us, but did, and did not have to make Himself known to us, but did, and did not have to love us after we ruined what He created us to be, but did.
You can feel the tension in YHWH. After having had to scrap most of His once-very-good creation and start over, then having brought about a nation designed to be a light to all other nations, they are now complaining about His choices instead. He was about to scrap the whole plan and start over again, and this man was even part of that whole golden calf mess. He didn’t start it, but he caved in to pressure, and got his brother angry enough to destroy the inimitable precious-stone tablets He’d just written for him.
He decided to give them another try, but He had just had to show that there was only so much He would tolerate. If humans have emotions, the One in whose image we are made certainly has them too, and especially anger, though it may be more justified in Him than it is in us, is never neat and tidy.
So He doesn’t address Aharon directly; he goes through the one who knows him better than any other man and who can broach things in a human way that would not overwhelm Aharon—just as later He decided not to judge us Himself, but to commit “all judgment into the Son…because he is the son of Adam.” (Yochanan 5:22, 27) YHWH knows good from evil better than any of us, but He has never experienced evil as an insider as we do. He recognizes His purity is so intense for us that it is wise for us to have a mediator. (Deut. 18:16-19) He lets Moshe filter the message in a way that’s not too much to assimilate at once. And He only requires Aharon to face His direct Presence, which must have now seemed so frightening to him, once a year (16:34), and with the support of “a great cloud of witnesses”.
Not only did He bring us out of “double stress/oppression” (the meaning of Mitzrayim); He was bringing us to a new place. But “when in Rome, do as the Romans” does not fit either locale for Israel; He gave a third option: His own direct instructions about what He wants. (18:3-5) Egypt and Canaan were just guessing what “the gods” wanted. Both came up with pretty gruesome ideas (probably with the help of the demons they were actually worshipping, as 1 Cor. 10:20 directly states, and Lev. 17:7 here adds credence; see also Deut. 32:17). He gave us a fast lane to knowing without the trial and error.
Part of it was specifics on which relatives are too genetically close to interbreed with. They didn’t know this would avoid mutations or missing chromosomes. (18:6-18) There were other reasons, if only the awkwardness of being two kinds of relative at the same time—or simply that this person already belongs to somebody else (18:20) or are the wrong gender (18:22—yes, this still applies) or something even harder to stomach (18:23), which is called “confusion”, from the same root word as Babel; it is crossing the species barrier.
YHWH says such things are repulsive to Him (18:26-30), so they should be to us as well, as they’ll contaminate us with “spiritual wickedness” manifesting in the physical realm. We’d better take these prohibitions seriously. We still feel the exponential effects of one couple’s crashing through His fence.
Dealing with Pervasive Corruption, Not Just Overt
The high priest who goes into the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur “must put the incense on the fire before YHWH, so that the cloud of the incense may cover the ark-cover that is over the testimony, so he will not die.” (Lev. 16:13)
This is serious business! He could not look upon the place between the kh’ruvim where YHWH met with us (Ex. 25:22) and survive, so he had to hide it with smoke. Meeting with complete purity is a highly-precarious thing.
We don’t often think about how sub-standard even the holiest things on earth are since Adam’s fall. For YHWH to be able to be in our midst, the high priest “must make atonement for the holy place, because of the uncleannesses of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions--all their sins; and he must do the same for the tent of meeting that dwells with them in the midst of their uncleannesses.” (Lev. 16:16)
I thought it was already holy! But no; corrupted human beings have been touching it.
Maybe we can get an approximation of the feeling. It’s something like wanting to eat finger food right after petting a dog; you have to wash your hands first. Or worse, having to eat out of a dish the dog just ate from. It has to be sanitized before it is usable to us again—because an animal never meets the human standard of clean. Now transfer that to how we compare to YHWH's purity.
We got a small taste of this in the pandemic when everyone was assumed to be contaminated, even though most were not; but in this case, everyone who interacted with the holy place actually was indeed defiled—covered with dead cells and bacteria that adhere to our sweat (Gen. 3:19; Ezek. 44:18?) because something has to consume the bodily fluids which are out of synch with what they originally were.
YHWH was merciful in that He only kept those with a limited number of extreme contaminations away from the sanctuary, but in reality we are unclean again almost as soon as we step out of the ritual bath, because we are in a fallen world; corruption is attracted to the chemical imbalances in even the healthiest of us.
That’s why these “extra” atonements had to be made—to deal with the “ambient impurity”, the “background defilement” of the entire natural sphere, even when we don’t have oozing sores or, worst, have touched something dead whose putrefaction is obvious to all.
He only requires a few things in this realm to be kept holy; imagine if we became ritually impure if any bacteria at all touched us or if we bled from any kind of cut! YHWH kept the purification requirements to only a few matters in His mercy, but those few things are critical to remind us that it was all supposed to be clean and not only a habitation for mankind but a place YHWH could walk among us like He did in the Garden of Eden—but it isn’t and He can’t, so at least a few holy spaces must be maintained to keep us from losing all sense of the sacred and letting things get like they were just before the Flood—all but unsalvageable. A remnant had to survive.
And yet we could not even do that much. Israel is excoriated in the haftarah because “you have despised My holy things, and profaned My sabbaths.” (Ezek. 22:8)
Israel was supposed to be the model, the exception on a broader scale—a kind of “Sabbath” in contrast with the rest of the world, so it could see some holiness and maybe desire more of it. Yet YHWH’s scathing analysis is “in YOU ([Israel, of all peoples—you who are supposed to be the paragon] I have found injustice, in YOU there are idols, in YOU there is lewdness, and in YOU they bribe others to commit murder!” (synopsis of Ezek. 22:9-12) And the inevitable worst result: “You have forgotten ME!”
THAT is why He scattered us into exile and dispersed us widely (so we would no longer be concentrated like they were at the Tower of Bavel). Its purpose: to “consume away the filthiness out of” us. (22:16) Accomplishing this while we were still dispersed could have the effect of reminding every part of the world that holiness does exist, and making all nations long for more light. We can be His hand extended to the farthest reaches of the darkness.
The exile has been long enough; our seven-times sentence (Lev. 26:18-28) is now up, but we are still in exile, because this last purpose has not yet been completed.
It can be done--if we make it top priority. We have been given even more empowerment than the original recipients of the assignment had—an internal source of holiness, a Torah written right onto our hearts that can overcome the corruption. Use what He has provided!
There is a Way Back
This Torah portion gives many of the worst examples of things that disgust YHWH. Don’t even start down those roads, He says; instead, “guard My customs, which the man who does [them] shall live on account of…and not carry out any of the repulsive things the men of the Land that is before you have done…; thus the Land is defiled. That way the Land will not disgorge you for defiling it, as it [has begun] vomiting out the nation that is before you.” (Lev. 18:5, 26-28)
The haftarah gives us a glimpse far later into our history when our many disobediences to His rules had piled up, to the point that YHWH says we have “reached our time”. (Ez. 22:3, 4) The city that is meant to be holy is full of things repulsive to Him. (22:2) We’re at the other end of the testing of His patience, and the Land is about to disgorge what is left of Israel, as it had already expelled the earlier offenders. It’s not just obvious symptoms like idolatry; the underlying attitudes have now all gone wrong too:
“They have made light of father and mother in you [even in Jerusalem!]; they have dealt oppressively with the foreigner in your midst. They have mistreated fatherless and widow!” (22:7) Digging deeper still, we find that such things only result when “you have regarded My sacred things with contempt.” (22:8) When this foundation is crumbling, there can no longer be a society He can live with.
And we see the very same trends today. There is the crossing of sexual boundaries, bribery, extortion, out-of-control interest charges. And, by the way, “you have also forgotten Me.” (22:12) That is the deepest undermining of all, the last straw that leads Him to ask if we really know who we are dealing with: seriously, “can your heart stand and your hands keep a strong grip, in the face of the days I am preparing [for] you? I, YHWH, have spoken, and I will act!” He was not kidding; He will keep the awful promise in this Torah portion to those who would flout His commands to this extent, despite a thousand years of patience since He spoke it.
“When I have scattered you among the Gentiles and sown you in the lands, I will completely exhaust the impurity from out of you.” (Ez. 22:15) Yet, just as He told the high priest to atone for His tent of appointment so it (and therefore He) can still remain with us even amidst all our uncleannesses (Lev. 16:16), earlier in Ezekiel (11:16), YHWH said, “Even though I cast them off far away among the nations, … still, I will be for them like a little sanctuary among the lands to which they shall come.”
For atonement has been made, even in an environment far less holy than when Israel dwelt in unity around the “big sanctuary”. This Torah portion is the one that gives us the cardinal principle, “It is the blood that effects a covering for the soul.” (Lev. 17:11) This short statement has vast repercussions, both retrospectively, explaining what they had just experienced in Egypt (“When I see the blood, I will pass over you”, Ex. 12:13) and as the fundamental justification and authorization for the ultimate atonement through Yeshua’s blood.
Because of this He can make the offer, “I will put a new spirit within you, and remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a fleshy heart.” (11:19) If we let Him do that, instead of learning their ways, the result can be "having your conduct commendable among the Gentiles so they… honor Elohim due to your good works that they see.” (1 Peter 2:12)
We could then be the generation He brings back home to the soil of Israel and be the ones who “abolish all her detestable things and [remove] all her disgusting things from her” (11:17-18), making Him again well-pleased to settle in our presence.
His Better Ways
What is Yom Kippur? It’s known as a day of judgment, a rehearsal for the final one in which everyone’s deeds will be scrutinized. One of the accusations YHWH brings against us in Ezekiel (22:8) is, “You have regarded My sacred things with contempt, and treated My Sabbaths like ordinary days!”
He had told us not to “act according to the pursuits of the land … in which you lived, nor do as they do [in] the land … to which I am bringing you…[but instead] carry out My legal procedures and observe My customs.” (Lev. 18:3-4) His ways are different and unique—and far better than ordinary. So when He whom Avraham called “the Judge of all the earth” renders a sentence, it is not what you would expect:
“When I have scattered you among the Gentiles and sown you in the lands, I will completely exhaust the impurity from out of you.” (Ezek. 22:15) That is a very loving motive behind our exile. It is not actually punishment; it is therapy: “’I have seen his ways, but I will heal him, and will guide him and restore compassions to him and his mourners, creating the fruitfulness of his lips.” (57:18-19)
Notice that YHWH Himself would create in us what is good! Dr. Erez Soref of the Israel College of the Bible pointed out that the command regarding Yom Kippur is not to do a lot of things to try to make up for our wrongdoings. All that the congregation brings is the two goats; the high priest does everything else. We are even told clearly to “do no work” on that day. (Lev. 16:29)
The writer to the Hebrews comments, in this vein, that “he who has entered into his rest has also ceased from his own works, as YHWH did from his.” (4:10) We stop doing everything, “because he [the high priest] is the one who will effect a covering…to cleanse you from all your sins; [then,] before YHWH’s face you shall be pure. It is a high Sabbath of rest for you; you must humble yourself.” (Lev. 16:30-31) Part of that is admitting we can’t make amends for all we’ve done wrong. But He can, through His proxy. This humbling is the only thing that can make us rise higher:
“Thus says the Exalted and Lofty One, who inhabits eternity, and whose Name is in a class of its own: 'I will inhabit the elevated and the set-apart--that is, with the contrite and humble of spirit--in order to revive the spirit of the humble ones, and to bring to life to the heart of the remorseful.’” (57:15) This irony highlights how different a Master YHWH is from those “who lord it over [those who serve] them”.
So “clear the path! Take out of the way anything that would make My people stumble!'” (Isa. 57:14) The verse before this tells us why: so they can run to Him for refuge. Make sure nothing inhibits that.
Isaiah 58 tells us what YHWH really intends for Yom haKippurim: “Isn't this the [kind of] fast I prefer: that you loose the bands of wickedness, undo heavy burdens, let the oppressed go free…? Isn’t it to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the poor who are refugees into your house?” (vv. 6-7)
It’s not about making yourself suffer; it’s about setting everything else aside to make time (and a budget) for what’s really important, then carry this priority over into daily decisions about how we treat others.
He then directly addresses the charge we began with: “If you restrain your foot… from doing whatever you please on my set-apart day) and call the Sabbath a delight, YHWH’s holiness something to be honored--and do honor him, not engaging in your own affairs…, then you will take exquisite delight in YHWH.” In obeying, we will experience His love and find Him irresistible!
“…And I will … feed you with the heritage of Yaaqov your father” (vv. 13-14)--a heritage the likes of which you’ll find nowhere else.
