What "Does" the Good Book Say
Welcome to parasha Emor. It begins in Leviticus 21:1-24:23. Emor means to speak. We see YHVH speaking here to the sons of Aharon. As Priests, he instructs them on being around deceased people. Being around the deceased defiles a person, so they needed instructions on this matter. They could be defiled for; their mother, their father, daughter, son and brother. They could be defiled for their sister if she was yet unmarried and living at home. That was the extent of it! Then He instructs them as to not shaving their heads, nor cutting off the edges of their beards, nor making cuttings on themselves for mourning. These three acts were "the things the pagans did" in honor of the mourning of a deceased relative. Remember, these priests were to be set apart, different from the average Joe pagan. A lot of Jews have taken what was commanded to be a mourning ritual by pagans, in not cutting their beards and ran with it. So they don't trim their beards at all. It can grow down on their chest and get entwined with their chest hair for all they care, all the more 'holy' to them:. Then YHVH instructs them not to take a harlot, or a defiled woman for a wife. Isn't it amazing what YHVH has to instruct His people "not to do"? I mean, these are His Priests for heaven's sake, wouldn't you think they might just think twice before marrying a harlot? I guess YHVH knew the power of lust in a man, Priest or not! We just read in the previous parasha, where YHVH had to tell His people not to offer up their children to be burned to the god of Molech. Abortion is our modern day Molech we offer up our kids to! Sin certainly has made man one sick puppy! Now if you think that sounds strict, listen at the instructions for the daughter of a Priest.
If you were a Priest and your daughter became a harlot, it was the flames for you, I mean literally! It actually says she was to be burnt with fire! Now I don't know about you, but I don't believe there would have been a man on earth I would have risked getting burned to death over. I know that passion can be hot, but it's not nearly as hot as burning wood around your ankles:! This was instructions for Aharon's sons. Let's take a look at the instructions for the Kohen HaGadol (High Priest). First of all, he couldn't be around any deceased person! This included their mother and father. When it came to marrying, he could not marry a divorced woman, a widow, or a harlot. She had to be a virgin from among his own people. That certainly cut the playing field down:. Now let's ask a question here. If YHVH says "we" are Priests and kings now, how does this apply to us today? Should we be going to the funeral home to weep and rub the head on every person we know who dies? Funerals are BIG BUSINESS today. They aren't interested in how your relative gets sent off as they say, no, they are interested in how much money they can make on your grief! It's about how bad can they make you feel if you don't buy the best casket money can buy for that loved one as your last act of love for them? They said Michael Jackson's casket was made of gold, do you think that helped him in any way to enter the Kingdom? I say when it comes time for me to go, buy the cheapest casket you can and put me in the ground as fast as humanly possible. What about marriage then? If YHVH instructed these Priests so closely in whom they should marry, should we be any less observant? If you want to marry a woman, or man, shouldn't he be walking in the same way you are? What has darkness got to do with light? I know Christian men and women who married someone whom they thought 'would change' some day and thirty years or so later, they are still waiting on that change to take place.
Meanwhile, that mate has hindered them spiritually in their walk with Yeshua. Marry someone who is in "like mind" with you, not going in a different direction spiritually. If you're Messianic, marry a Messianic, or you'll be sorry later! Now let's talk relatives! If any of Aharon's offspring or his son's offspring had a defect, he could not come near the offerings. If he had a blind eye, a broken foot, or any other defect, he could not come near the altar. This was told not only to Aharon and his sons, but to all the children of Israel. Neither could the seed of Aharon come near, if they had touched a dead animal or any other unclean act they might be involved in. In these last mentioned acts, they had to wash their clothes and be unclean until evening. Then we switch over to sacrifices. First we deal with a freewill offering. The offering had to be perfect, without a blemish. Here is something you may not know. In chapter twenty-two, verse twenty-four, in Hebrew this is referring to castrating an animal. It is forbidden to neuter an animal! I know the animal shelters say otherwise, but those people don't read their Word very closely! If you purchased or was given the animal and it was already neutered, then you are innocent, you were not the one who did it. But don't do it yourself! Then finally we get to the Feasts in Leviticus twenty-three. This chapter contains the details of the Festivals of YHVH. You'll notice on Sukkot, you are to bring four species to wave before the Lord. This is done on the first day of the Festival. I'm going to tell you what Rabbinic tradition sees in these four items; the esrog resembles the heart; the palm branch the spine, the myrtle branch the eyes and the willow the lips. By holding all four of these together, to them it represents giving over all of these faculties to YHVH for His service. Also, they say the esrog (citron) has both taste and aroma, representing one who has both scholarship and good deeds, the palm branch has a taste but no aroma, representing one who has scholarship but no good deeds, the myrtle has no taste, but has aroma, symbolizing one who is deficient in Torah, but has good deeds and the willow which has no taste or aroma, a picture of one who does not have Torah or good deeds. They say they are all held together to represent all the different types of people that must be united together in YHVH.
As I said, this is Rabbinic thinking here. As Messianics, we would come up with a different picture putting Torah plus Messiah in place of scholarship and good deeds. Then we have the law of an eye for an eye. We've discussed this in previous parashas, but we'll touch on it again. This is NEVER meant to be permission to go poke someone's eye out in return for an eye injury inflicted upon someone else. Nor is it knocking out a tooth for a tooth. But let's say you damaged a singer's finger, it would not hinder her from still singing. But what if you damaged a piano player's finger? That's a different story! You might have to make that person's living for them until their finger healed totally, or maybe if the finger were lost, you may have had to make his living for years to come, until he could learn a new skill to support himself. But you would never go smash the other person's finger. It just meant you owed equal recompense for whatever problem you caused. Remember in the old Wild West shows on television, when the person shot someone in retaliation for their friend or relative getting shot, then quoted this "eye for an eye" scripture from the GOOD BOOK, as they said? I believe this could have attributed to distorting the meaning a little for us television watchers back then:. I do believe those cattle rustlers and bank robbers hadn't read the GOOD BOOK very much:! Shalom
If you were a Priest and your daughter became a harlot, it was the flames for you, I mean literally! It actually says she was to be burnt with fire! Now I don't know about you, but I don't believe there would have been a man on earth I would have risked getting burned to death over. I know that passion can be hot, but it's not nearly as hot as burning wood around your ankles:! This was instructions for Aharon's sons. Let's take a look at the instructions for the Kohen HaGadol (High Priest). First of all, he couldn't be around any deceased person! This included their mother and father. When it came to marrying, he could not marry a divorced woman, a widow, or a harlot. She had to be a virgin from among his own people. That certainly cut the playing field down:. Now let's ask a question here. If YHVH says "we" are Priests and kings now, how does this apply to us today? Should we be going to the funeral home to weep and rub the head on every person we know who dies? Funerals are BIG BUSINESS today. They aren't interested in how your relative gets sent off as they say, no, they are interested in how much money they can make on your grief! It's about how bad can they make you feel if you don't buy the best casket money can buy for that loved one as your last act of love for them? They said Michael Jackson's casket was made of gold, do you think that helped him in any way to enter the Kingdom? I say when it comes time for me to go, buy the cheapest casket you can and put me in the ground as fast as humanly possible. What about marriage then? If YHVH instructed these Priests so closely in whom they should marry, should we be any less observant? If you want to marry a woman, or man, shouldn't he be walking in the same way you are? What has darkness got to do with light? I know Christian men and women who married someone whom they thought 'would change' some day and thirty years or so later, they are still waiting on that change to take place.
Meanwhile, that mate has hindered them spiritually in their walk with Yeshua. Marry someone who is in "like mind" with you, not going in a different direction spiritually. If you're Messianic, marry a Messianic, or you'll be sorry later! Now let's talk relatives! If any of Aharon's offspring or his son's offspring had a defect, he could not come near the offerings. If he had a blind eye, a broken foot, or any other defect, he could not come near the altar. This was told not only to Aharon and his sons, but to all the children of Israel. Neither could the seed of Aharon come near, if they had touched a dead animal or any other unclean act they might be involved in. In these last mentioned acts, they had to wash their clothes and be unclean until evening. Then we switch over to sacrifices. First we deal with a freewill offering. The offering had to be perfect, without a blemish. Here is something you may not know. In chapter twenty-two, verse twenty-four, in Hebrew this is referring to castrating an animal. It is forbidden to neuter an animal! I know the animal shelters say otherwise, but those people don't read their Word very closely! If you purchased or was given the animal and it was already neutered, then you are innocent, you were not the one who did it. But don't do it yourself! Then finally we get to the Feasts in Leviticus twenty-three. This chapter contains the details of the Festivals of YHVH. You'll notice on Sukkot, you are to bring four species to wave before the Lord. This is done on the first day of the Festival. I'm going to tell you what Rabbinic tradition sees in these four items; the esrog resembles the heart; the palm branch the spine, the myrtle branch the eyes and the willow the lips. By holding all four of these together, to them it represents giving over all of these faculties to YHVH for His service. Also, they say the esrog (citron) has both taste and aroma, representing one who has both scholarship and good deeds, the palm branch has a taste but no aroma, representing one who has scholarship but no good deeds, the myrtle has no taste, but has aroma, symbolizing one who is deficient in Torah, but has good deeds and the willow which has no taste or aroma, a picture of one who does not have Torah or good deeds. They say they are all held together to represent all the different types of people that must be united together in YHVH.
As I said, this is Rabbinic thinking here. As Messianics, we would come up with a different picture putting Torah plus Messiah in place of scholarship and good deeds. Then we have the law of an eye for an eye. We've discussed this in previous parashas, but we'll touch on it again. This is NEVER meant to be permission to go poke someone's eye out in return for an eye injury inflicted upon someone else. Nor is it knocking out a tooth for a tooth. But let's say you damaged a singer's finger, it would not hinder her from still singing. But what if you damaged a piano player's finger? That's a different story! You might have to make that person's living for them until their finger healed totally, or maybe if the finger were lost, you may have had to make his living for years to come, until he could learn a new skill to support himself. But you would never go smash the other person's finger. It just meant you owed equal recompense for whatever problem you caused. Remember in the old Wild West shows on television, when the person shot someone in retaliation for their friend or relative getting shot, then quoted this "eye for an eye" scripture from the GOOD BOOK, as they said? I believe this could have attributed to distorting the meaning a little for us television watchers back then:. I do believe those cattle rustlers and bank robbers hadn't read the GOOD BOOK very much:! Shalom