This song was composed and performed by John Carlson. It is quite moving. It features the words of what is called the Shema. Shema is a Hebrew word translated as Hear! The Shema contains several passages from the Torah, and Jesus referred to the Shema as the “greatest commandment”.
(3 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
Loading ...This song was composed by John Carlson and performed by John Carlson and Sherry Cole.
It is an incredible song!
(2 votes, average: 5 out of 5) Loading ...This week we begin a study of the book of Leviticus.
Exodus begins with the children of Israel as slaves, building temples, cities and pyramids for the Pharaoh and ends with the children of Israel building a sanctuary for its God.
The Hebrew name for the book of Leviticus is Va-Yikra - “and he called”. The oldest name for the book was Torath Kohanim - the Instructions of the Priests, or the Priestly Torah.
Israel is called by God to be a Kingdom of Priests (Exodus 19:6). The ancient Israelites were to be part of a theocracy, with God as its King and the people making up a “holy nation”. Christians too, are referred to by this appelative (I Peter 2:5, 9; Revelation 1:6). So then Jews and Christians could stand to study afresh the words of this ancient priestly instruction manual.
The book itself can be divided broadly into two parts; (1) Sacrifices and laws regarding the priestly character of Israel and (2) Holiness and the sanctification of life.
Few modern Bible students really study the book of Leviticus. This is regretable. They find its chapters dealing with the slaughter of animals, the blood and flesh of these sacrifices, bodily discharges and skin diseases and proper handling of situations involving mold in houses to be void of spiritual value. And yet to categorize the contents of the book in this manner truly misses the point of the work.
In ancient times, according to Rabbi Hertz, the Jewish child began the study of Scripture with the book of Leviticus. According to an ancient midrash we learn, “Because little children are pure and the sacrifices are pure, let those who are pure come and occupy themselves with pure things.”
Some skip over Leviticus thinking that it is legalistic, archaic and of no real present worth. And yet God chose to place this priestly document at the heart of His revelation to ancient Israel.
Leviticus conveys concepts for Biblical living. It teaches:
- discernment
- how to distinguish between what is permitted and what is forbidden
- what is holy and what is profane
- what is pure and what is polluted
- it speaks of what is acceptable to eat
- it contains the feasts of the LORD
The Bible contains a great deal about sacrifices, but it also speaks of the fact that obedience is better than sacrifice (1 Samuel 15:22) and that God desires Hesed (loving-kindness) more than sacrifice (Hosea 6:6; cf. Matthew 9:10-13; 12:1-8).
In the messianic age, according to the midrash, all offerings will cease except the thanksgiving offering which will continue forever.
The various sacrifices serve to draw humanity closer to God. but how does one approach God? See Micah 6:6-8
Friedman comments in his work, that the words; repentance, grace and kindness do not occur in Leviticus. It should also be mentioned that except for a couple of possible sections (Leviticus 5:1-6 and 20-26), sacrifice is to “cover” for unintentional sins only.
There are three ways in which the sacrifice was “disposed” of:
(1) the sacrifice was wholly consumed
(2) the priests were paid for their service with the meat of the sacrifice
(3) the offerer was permitted to eat the sacrifice
Reasons for sacrifice vary from thanksgiving, to purification to reparation.
I hope that you will join us as the congregation of Roots of Faith begins its study of Leviticus.
Listen to the service once it is listed on this page and as always, let us know what you think.
Until next week….shalom shalom, Ross
Va-Yikra Introduction [40:15m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download Va-Yikra Torah Reading [34:18m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download Va-Yikra Comments-Questions [41:53m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...In this week’s lesson we read the two final Torah readings of the Book of Exodus. It is also the special Sabbath or HaKodesh. The special reading from the Torah is Exodus 12:1-20. Tuesday night begins the Hebrew New Year according to the “religious” calendar. The barley has been found in the fields of Israel and so the month of Nisan will commence with the expected sighting of the New moon on Tuesday night.
The two main points that I teach on in this week’s lesson are: 1) The anointing and the anointed and 2) The Old Testament “church”.
The introduction contains a wonderful song performed by two of our congregants, Sherry Cole and John Carlson. John wrote the music to this song which features the words of Psalm 130 and he and Sherry sang beautifully to John’s guitar. What better way to start the Biblical new year than with the singing of this Psalm!
The Anointing of Aaron is described in Psalm 133 as well as in our Torah reading today (see Exodus 40:12-15). Psalm 45:6-7 and Isaiah 61:1ff (see also Luke 4:14-21) describe a “prophetic figure” spoken of as being anointed. I talk about these texts in this week’s lesson.
I also commented on what I termed, “The Old Testament Church”. The New Testament translation of the word “church” causes people to draw a strict line of differentiation between the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament. For, in most translations the word church appears numerous times in the NT, but appears nowhere in the Hebrew Bible. This makes people believe that the “church” is not found in the Old Testament. Is this the case? In this week’s lesson I show that the choice of English words for the original Hebrew and Greek may lead the student down a path that the original authors did not intend.
I begin in Exodus 35:1, the beginning of this week’s torah reading. There we read that Moses “assembled the congregation”. Qahal is the Hebrew word that is translated as assembled. It is frequently used throughout the Hebrew Bible as a noun for the “assembly” of Israel, referring to the entire people of Israel - the people of God.
When the “Old Testament” was translated into Greek via the Septuagint, the Hebrew word Qahal was rendered by the Greek word ekklesia. This word, when it occured in the NT was rarely translated into English as “assembly” but was rather rendered as “church”.
The Hebrew word translated as “congregation” is the word eidah. When this word was translated into Greek it was represented by the word sunagogay.
Why the translators chose, for whatever reason to translate these terms differently, I leave you to decide. A study of these terms is most instructive though in any attempt to show the continuity between the Hebrew Bible and the formative “Christian Church”.
Enjoy the lesson and let us know what you think of the service. Until next week, shalom and blessings - Ross
Vayyakhel/Pekudei Intro and Reading [57:20m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download Vayyakhel/Pekudei Comments [26:42m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1 votes, average: 5 out of 5) Loading ...