The Jerusalem Prayer List – April 11, 2024
Copyright 2024 By Joseph Shulam
The Torah reading this Shabbat: Tazria from Leviticus 12:1 – 13:59.
The Haftarah reading from the Prophets: 2 Kings 4:42 – 5:19
The New Testament reading: Luke 2:22-33.
One of the hardest things is to choose what to discuss from these wonderful, rich texts from the Word of God. The Leviticus 12 text is rich with interesting points that are often not discussed in Christian circles. Leviticus 12:1 has an intriguing meaning that Christian commentators most often miss because they translate the essential meaning of the text but not the literal meaning of the Hebrew original text: 'Speak to the Israelite people thus: When a woman at childbirth bears a male, she shall be impure seven days; she shall be impure as at the time of her condition of menstrual separation.—This is the English Translations and it is much like most European languages that translate the Bible.
If I translated the text from Hebrew, this is what it would read like ״Speak to the children of Israel, saying: A woman, when she conceives and bears a male child, then she shall be unclean for seven days; as in the days of her menstruation, she shall be unclean.״
The problem with these translations is that they translate the context rather than the words. The words in Hebrew don't make sense if they are taken literally. The text does not say, "A woman when she conceives and bears a male son!" The Rabbis consider the literal translation of the Hebrew text of Leviticus 12:2 in the Talmud tractate shi commented: "If a woman has conceived seed, and born [a male]…. *Babylonian Talmud Niddah 27b. ---- Now, with regard to the implication of the verse, the Rabbis have said: "Ishah ki thazria — "if the woman emits seed first, she will bear a son." (the literal translation of the Hebrew text of Leviticus 12:2.)
The intent of the Rabbis was not that the child was formed from the woman's seed, although the woman had generative organs [i.e., ovaries] like the man's. Yet, they do not create the seed, or [if it is formed], that seed is not thick and does not contribute anything to the embryo. Instead, the Rabbis used the term "she emits seed" regarding the blood of the womb, which gathers in the mother at the time of the consummation of coition and attaches itself to the seed of the male."
To make this text from the Rabbis plain and clear, the Rabbis understood the literal text in Hebrew at the end of the 2nd Century CE, that is, a woman during coition finishes first will have a male child. The male child has to be circumcised on the 8th Day to be purified of the blood of the birth, which is like the blood of menstruation. This text is a kind of explanation for why Israelite males have to be circumcised on the 8th Day.
Why is this text important to us as disciples of Yeshua who believe that every word written in the Bible is the Word of God given to us by the Spirit of God? What are we reading in this Torah text on this Shabbat in every Synagogue worldwide? The answer to this question is especially interesting because in the Gospel of Luke chapter 2, we have the following text:
Luke 2:21: And when eight days were completed for the circumcision of the Child, His name was called JESUS in Greek (Yeshua in Hebrew), the name given by the angel before He was conceived in the womb. 22 Now when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were completed, they brought Him to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord 23 (as it is written in the law of the Lord, "Every male who opens the womb shall be called holy to the LORD"), 24 and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord, "A pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons."
If you read Leviticus 12:2-8, you will see that the whole text in Luke is contingent on this reading on this Sabbath from Leviticus chapter 12. Here is what is very interesting for me. The literal Hebrew text of Leviticus 12:2 states that the woman can produce seed, "Ishah ki thazria — "if the woman emits seed first, she will bear a son." Literally, this is what the Hebrew Text says, and the commentary of the Rabbis in the Talmud says it clearly and explains how this works. Still, they also add an even more interesting explanation, considering that Yeshua was born without a male intervention. The literal meaning of the Hebrew text of Leviticus 12:2 says, "If a woman emits seed first!"
This text of Leviticus 12:2 says nothing about a male partner in the birth of this male child born to a woman who produces SEED first and has a son! I have never had doubts about the Birth of Yeshua because I have always believed that the God who created the world with His word would have no problem having a woman bear a son from a seed that she emitted! If God could make an elephant and a giraffe on the same day and then create a man and a woman from one of his ribs the next day!
Here, we have the formula of a woman giving birth to a male child, and there is no mention of the male father in this process. From verses 1 – 8, only the woman is mentioned, not meaning that there is no male in the picture or the process, but it is here a hint and an option in this text that a woman can have a seed and give birth to a male child.
The next thing I would like to bring from our reading on this Shabbat is our reading of the prophets. The reading is from 2 Kings 4:42-45:19, a very interesting text with many important lessons, but I want to concentrate on the first short text with important implications to many Bible texts. The multiplication of food is a major theme in the Bible, from the Torah to the New Testament. I don't understand why some people and many Christians have difficulty believing the stories in the New Testament that Yeshua fed 5000 people with a tiny amount of food. Yeshua and His disciples had five pita bread and two fish. Here in our story, Elisha is feeding 100 people with very little food, and after the people ate and were satisfied, the cooking pot was still full of food left over!
What can we learn from these two stories of the reading in the Synagogues this Shabbat, before the Passover? The Passover seder meal will be held in Jerusalem on April 23, 2024.
Elijah, Elisha's mentor, actually has the record of the multiplication of food. For three years, God multiplied the oil and the flour of the gentile widow in Lebanon (Tzarfata) because this widow took care of Elijah, the man of God first. God blessed her and her son, who would have died from starvation if she had not preferred Elijah, a strange Hebrew man who just happened to arrive from the land of Israel to the town of Tzarfata because Ahab, the king, and his wife Jezebel were looking for him to kill him.
This gentile woman is mentioned in the New Testament too.
Luke 4:25-26:
"But I tell you truly, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a great famine throughout all the land; 26 but to none of them was Elijah sent except to Zarephath, in the region of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow."
What can we learn from this portion of the Law, Prophets, and New Testament that will be discussed in messianic congregations worldwide? One of the lessons that we can learn is so simple that most preachers miss it. Why did Yeshua mention this gentile widow who lived in Lebanon and was willing to take the words of Elijah and believe them? When she did, God provided for her for three years until the famine in the land ended food with a steady supply, just like God did for the children of Israel in the wilderness for nearly 40 years.
God is in control of all of nature, outside of nature, above nature, and in control of nature. This lesson is of great importance to all of us. Because we are controlled above all by our insecurities and fears, so much of our lives, even and maybe primarily those who believe in God and Trust him spiritually in church or Synagogue, but we have only faith in what we already have in our hands and only in what we can control. Theological faith is not a biblical faith. Biblical faith is not a doctrine that you believe or disbelieve; biblical faith is putting your lives in the hands of the Lord and stepping on a bridge that is not seen with our physical eyes, knowing that the Lord is waiting for us on the other side.
Faith is giving your last dollars into the contribution basket, being left with 25 cents, and believing that God will take you from Miami, Florida, to Rochester, Michigan, from Sunday afternoon to Monday afternoon on 25 cents. I don't want to boast, but I do want to give credit to the LORD All Mighty, who is all in all and able to care for His servants even by a Gentile widow who had one meal left for her and her son and was ready to starve when she gave that last meal to the man of God, to Elijah. This act of faith saved her life and her son's life twice. The first time was when God multiplied the oil and flour for three years until the famine in the land ended. God controls nature and what and who we are in His eyes. Yes, in His eyes, that see beyond the outside physical world and beyond the now well into the tomorrow.
2. The second lesson is that we are so short-sighted that we can't see the horizon or 10 meters around the corner! So, we fear and freeze if we don't have genuine faith in God and trust in His promises. We sing in church:
1 Standing on the promises of Christ, my King,
Through eternal ages, let his praises ring;
Glory in the highest, I will shout and sing,
Standing on the promises of God.
Refrain:
Standing, standing,
Standing on the promises of God, my Savior;
Standing, standing,
I'm standing on the promises of God.
2 Standing on the promises that cannot fail.
When the howling storms of doubt and fear assail,
By the living Word of God, I shall prevail,
Standing on the promises of God. [Refrain] Russell Kelso Carter (1886)
One of those promises of our Messiah and Savior is this:
John 7:33-35, "Little children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek me: and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go, ye cannot come; so now I say unto you. 34 A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; 15 even as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. 35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another."
This commandment that Yeshua gives us is not given to us in the past only, and not an expired command, but today's living command. If I may use some of Paul's words about love in this prayer list before the ending of this prayer list:
"Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, 5 doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not its own, is not provoked, taketh not account of evil; 6 rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth with the truth; 7 2beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. 8 Love never faileth:" (1 Corinthians 13:4-8)
In my long years of teaching, preaching, and building Netivyah in Jerusalem and around the world, I have seen true love. I have seen women selling their jewelry to help buy our building in Jerusalem. I have seen poor people give their paychecks, trusting God for tomorrow's bread to help a sick sister. I have seen pastors and leaders express the good, the bad, and the ugly, and the members of their churches show total selfishness and great generosity.
But like the psalmist, I have never seen this that King David has also never seen:
Psalms 37:25: "I have been young, and now am old, Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, Nor his descendants begging bread."
But I have seen more than once the rich who trust their riches more than the Lord lose their wealth and beg in the streets of Jerusalem. But I have seen the wealthy who refuse today to give and tomorrow beg to receive. But I I have not seen any generous man who was not happy. But I Have seen those who are selfish and have pockets full of money envy and feel bad that their neighbor who is not rich is happy and generous and has a good family, a rich smile, and a happy countenance.
You, dear brothers and sisters, have full freedom to trust God and be a blessing to others like the widow from Lebanon who served Elijah, the man of God, her and her son's last meal and was able to eat well for three years with God's provision because she gave first to the man of God. Yes, we are all free moral agents; we can fear and hold wealth and sit on it. Yes, we also have the option to share and give for God's work, the poor, the sick, the widows, and the orphans. We can sow the seed and expect a harvest of God's goodness for us and ours, Trusting in the promises of Christ our Savior.
My confession: I have not always lived up to what I have written above, BUT I HAVE ALWAYS WANTED TO LIVE UP TO MY OWN AND THE BIBLE”S EXPECTATIONS OF ME! I CONFESS THAT I WANT TO ALWAYS BE TRUSTING AND WALKING IN THE PROMISES OF GOD, MY SAVIOR.
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The first two lessons with Hebrew and Portuguese Captions
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