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Parasha Shlach (Send): Minding What We Hear

Rabbi-Torah-Jerusalem-Temple Mount

In Parasha Shlach, 12 spies (m'raglim) are dispatched into the land of Canaan to spy out the land that God promised to give them as their new home. They returned with huge clusters of grapes, since it was the season of the first ripe grapes, which coincides with the months of July and August. Although each of the spies acknowledged the bounty in the Land, they also reported that strong, violent giants lived there, spreading fear and doubt among the children of Israel, saying: “The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height.” (Numbers 13:32)

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Parasha Behaalotecha (When You Raise): Speaking the Truth in Love

Yeshua (Jesus) emphasized the theme of spiritual light during His earthly ministry. He recognized our need for light and revealed that those who follow Him will never be in darkness. Just as He is a light, we are also called to be lights. According to Philippians 2:14-15, one key way followers of Yeshua can shine as lights in the world is through loving one another and refraining from arguing or complaining.

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Parasha Naso (Elevate): Fulfilling the Law of Messiah

Hayley Fields-Israel-Torah-Dedication Ceremony

Naso is the longest portion in the Torah cycle. In it God instructs Moses to specify the duties of each family in serving the community and the Lord. In this way, the burden would be distributed so that it would not be too heavy for just a few people. All too often, the weight of the service of the Lord falls on the limited number of individuals willing to volunteer for the sake of the kehilla (community). This is not how the early Messianic community behaved. Believers had a communal lifestyle in which they helped one another and shared all things in common. “Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need.” (Acts 2:44–45) This concept of kehilla (community life) often seems lacking in modern society. Many people today live in isolation and are concerned primarily with meeting their own needs and not those of the common good.

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Parasha Bamidbar (In the Wilderness): Hearing His Voice in the Wilderness

Bar Mitzvah-Torah Scroll-Reading

The opening words of Parasha Bamidbar emphasize that God spoke to Moses in Bamidbar Sinai, or the wilderness/ desert of Sinai. God chose to speak to him in a land of stinging scorpions and spiders, a dry and thirsty land where water is scarce and the scorching sun beats down mercilessly upon the endless sand. We can understand from this, then, that a spiritual wilderness experience can be the time when God speaks to us and is, therefore, a valuable time of growth in our relationship with the Lord, who is the true source of nourishment and Living Water. We see this connection in the Hebrew words for desert (midbar מדבר ) and speak (m’daber מדבר), which have the exact same letters.

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Parasha Kedoshim (Holy Ones): The Secret of Holiness

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Kedoshim (Holy Ones) begins with God's command that Israel be holy because God is holy. Because the Hebrew word Kedoshim is related to Kadosh, the word for holy, sanctified, or set apart, we understand that a person set aside for the service of God is holy because God is holy. But what does true holiness really look like? Most people have their own preconceived notions of holiness based on preferences, upbringing, and even systems. The answer, however, is found in the Word of God.

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Parasha Acharei Mot (After Death): The Scapegoat for Sin

women's section_Kotel_prayer_siddur_Jerusalem

For most of us, even religious Jews, the idea of blood atonement for sin seems foreign and archaic. Moreover, in this day of do-what-you-think-is-right, even the basic concept of sin seems antiquated. Still, Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) is a reminder that the problem of sin is just as real today as it was in the time of Moses. According to Jewish tradition, in fact, Yom Kippur is the day that God pronounces judgment, administering either the rewards for good deeds (mitzvot) or the punishments for sin.

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Parasha Metzora: Four Lepers Who Went From Outcasts to Heroes

This week, Parasha Metzorah continues with the theme of Tazria. In it, God gives Moses the law for the recovered metzora (commonly mistranslated as leper) and the ritual purification of the metzora by the kohen (priest). In Matthew 8:3, Yeshua upholds this law when He heals the leper and tells him, "Show yourself to the priest and present the offering that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them." In accordance with God's command in Leviticus, when the kohen determined that the metzora had healed, he or she underwent a process of ritual cleansing that began with the offering of two birds, one which was sacrificed and the other which was set free.

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