The Garden Within | ACHAREI MOT-KEDOSHIM אַחֲרֵי מוֹת-קְדֹשִׁים - Portion 29 & 30

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Teachers of Torah have coined the Hebrew term PaRDeS (פרדס – a word literally meaning “garden” or "orchid") to refer to a four-tiered system of biblical interpretation, which reveals that each word, verse, and story in the Bible could be simultaneously understood on four different levels.  

Through this year-long course, we will explore the very words of God from these levels of the garden.  The name The Garden Within was chosen for this teaching series because it adopts the PaRDeS system of learning and because it delights in the spiritual pleasure through reaching new understandings and being pierced by lightning flashes of the intellect. The pleasure gained, of course, also refers to the nearness we feel to God when learning His Word.

One of the primary goals of The Garden Within is to demonstrate that the “stories” in the Torah are not merely one-time occurrences, temporal incidents undergone by specific individuals long ago. Rather these stories are archetypal in nature, reflecting or representing various physical and spiritual energies ever present in all aspects of reality and within each and every person.  That is, the Torah is deeply personal and speaks directly to each individual reader for where they are in their life.  So, come, take a walk with God in the Garden of the Torah!

#immlutheran #drchadfoster #christian #lcms #messianic

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:19

All righty. Good evening, everyone, Air of Tove. Welcome to the garden within this week. As we continue our year-long journey in the Torah, as we take the synagogue's lectionary, it's 54 portions of Genesis through Deuteronomy and go through that this week. Like last week is a double portion, so we'll take two of those portions and we'll talk about that and where we're at in the portion in the lectionary after we begin with the blessing before the study of Torah. So let us pray. Baruchata Adonai Elahenu Melakoyelam, Ashak kitishanu bomits vita, vesivanu le esok bidivre Torah. Blessed are you, Lord God, King of the universe, who has sanctified us with his commandments and has commanded us to be immersed into the words and the matters of the Torah. Amen. All right, so this week takes us to portions 29 and 30 of the Torah's 54 portions. That's because we are in uh, you know, the the Torah is divided into 54 portions, but a Torah year or a Hebrew calendar year can be uh a variation. And like we have a leap year uh after every four years. Um the the Hebrew calendar has um instead of adding a day to a month, they add an entire month, uh, but it's uh less frequent, and so when it's not one of those leap years, the portions, certain ones get combined. And last week was a combined portion. This week is a combined portion as well. Uh the two portions. The first one is known as achare mot. Uh in Hebrew, achare mot means after the death. Ahare means after, moat means death, after the death, referring to after the death of Nadab and Abuhu. Um, and then the 30th portion is kadoshim, uh, which is a Hebrew word, the plural, but it's coming from the Hebrew word kadosh, which means holy or holiness. Um, it covers Leviticus chapters 16 through 20. Uh, so that's where we'll be at uh this week. Uh so the 29th reading uh of the Torah is the sixth reading from the book of Leviticus, again named Akheremot, the two words that mean after the death comes from the first two words in the Hebrew of Leviticus chapter 16, verse 1, uh which in English would say, now the Lord spoke to Moses, acharemot, after the death of the two sons of Aaron, Nadab and Avahu. Leviticus chapter 16 describes the tabernacle ceremony for the festival known as the Day of Atonement, or Yom Kippur. Leviticus 17 establishes general rules for sacrifices and for the tabernacle, the sanctuary. And Leviticus 18 lays down some specific laws about permitted and forbidden sexual relations. Um, and then the 30th reading portion, Kedoshim, which would be the seventh reading from the book of Leviticus, uh, is named uh Kedoshim, means holy or holiness. Uh, and these two portions, while all of the book of Leviticus really kind of deals with holiness, these two portions in particular and most especially Kedoshim uh especially deals with the concept of holiness. And so we'll talk about that tonight. Uh comes from uh Leviticus chapter 19, verse 2, the title of the portion where it says, You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy. And that also then gets quoted in the New Testament, such as in 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 16. Uh Leviticus 19 describes the holy community through a series of what makes them up, what sets them apart, what makes them unique. Uh Leviticus 20 warns against uh sexual immorality and idolatry. Uh and again, except in biblical leap years, Kedeshim is always read in the same week alongside of Akare Mot. It's a double portion most of the time. All right, so that is where we are at in the Torah's portion, uh kind of right smack dab in the middle of it all, right? Torah's Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. So Leviticus is the center book, and we're kind of right in the center of the center book. Okay. So let's uh look here and entering the Holy of Holies, uh, Leviticus chapter 16, uh, verse 4. Uh there the verse says, He shall put on, speaking of the high priest, uh, not just any priest, uh, all priests wore certain uh attire. Uh, but the high priest in particular, uh, you may recall from our study when we were in the book of Exodus, uh, had special gear. You know, he had the uh the certain breastplate with the stones, he had headpieces and all kinds of other special gear. Uh but on Yom Kippur, on the day of atonement, uh, he kind of uh changed his uh what he wore, and it was more in line with what all the other priests wore. Uh and we're gonna stay with this verse not only in this section, but the next section as we kind of draw out uh a homiletical application of that. Uh but speaking of the high priest on the day of Yom Kippur, it says, He shall put on the holy linen tunic, and the linen undergarments shall be next to his body, and he shall be girded with the linen sash and attired with the linen turban, for these are holy garments. And then he shall bathe his body in water, and he shall put them on. So before entering into the holy of holies, uh the breakdown of the tabernacle, the most uh the smallest section, but yet the most reserved section, the place where only the high priest could enter, and even there only he could enter once a year on the Day of Atonement. Uh the high priest, um, before he would enter there, would immerse himself, what's called a mikvah in Hebrew. Uh, it's kind of the precursor, the predecessor, uh, the prototype of what would become baptism. Uh, he would immerse himself and put on a simple white set of linen garments. The white linen garments are actually the garments of the common priest. And so I want you to keep that tucked away because we're going to come back to that in the next section. So normally the high priest could be distinguished just by what he wore. Uh, you know, it was colorful, it had that blue teclet and uh and so forth, and it had the pomegranate bells, all of these different kinds of things. You could tell who the high priest was, right? But on Yom Kippur, he wore essentially what all the other priests wore. Uh, one popular myth has it that he wore his robe with the bells and to the Holy of Holies, so that if he died there, the people would know that because they would stop hearing the bells ring, um, and they would know to pull him out by means of a rope that they had tied around his leg. Now that's kind of just um an old wives tale, none of that's in the scriptures, uh, but it has been attached to some oral traditions that the high priest, because it was such holy ground, uh, that if he were to go in there and not be um uh have prepared himself uh correctly, uh, that he could be struck dead. And so he would wear these bells on the bottom so that you could hear him moving, and that he would tie a rope around his ankle so that if he dropped dead, you would notice the silence, and then you would have a way to get him out without you having to go in there and drop dead. Um, but the simple linen garments he wore on the Day of Atonement, they would not have had these bells, by the way. Okay, they were just the ordinary, everyday priestly garments. With two handfuls of incense and glowing coals from the altar, he enters into the darkness of God's throne. And so that's uh an important aspect about atonement is atonement is not forgiveness. Sometimes that gets confused in Western culture. Atonement is not forgiveness, atonement comes from the Hebrew word kefar. Uh, it's also the root word of kippur and yom kippur. Um in case you've ever wondered why ph makes an F sound in English, actually comes from the Hebrew. Uh because the the P sound in Hebrew can be a p sound or an F sound. Uh so kefar and kippur actually come from the same root. It means to cover, to provide like a safety covering. And so uh what the incense would do, and the coals from the altar and so forth, and they would put the incense, it would provide this covering between uh the priest and God, the the safety covering. Okay. And so when we also speak of like our Messiah as atonement, uh in that regard, it's not about forgiveness, it's about that he provides covering, he provides safety between us and our God. Like, like if God were to want to uh uh see us without uh anything but just us and our sin and so forth, right? We need something to cover us, right? That's the idea of our you you go out on a really rainy day or a really bad weather day, it's snowing, it's blizzarding, and so forth. You want a covering. That's what these this idea of the altar of incense is about. That's what incense means, by the way, in a religious setting, even today. Uh, if you've ever been part of going to uh Christian churches that use incense, uh you will notice when they use them, uh they especially use them around the altar, and they usually will do it over things that are considered holy. And the reason they're doing that is they're providing a covering over it to protect it from that which is not holy. All right, so they're trying to prevent the interaction of holy and unholy things. That is what incense is about, biblically speaking. All right, so that's what the high priest would do. He would come in with this incense from the altar of incense and put it on the coals. It would create this covering so that he could safely go into this space, and therefore he could effect atonement not only for the people, but even the space of the tabernacle itself, all through a series of blood rituals and offerings. Uh, in the course of these rituals, he carried the blood of the sin offerings into the Holy of Holies, and he would splash it seven times on the Ark of the Covenant. And again, that splashing is much like the incense. It's to provide a covering, hence atonement. And then seven times on the curtain that divided the Holy of Holies from the tabernacle, and finally seven times on the altar of incense that stood before the curtain. These rituals were intended to provide the necessary cleansing and atonement not only for the tabernacle, but for the people themselves. Now, because atonement is the work of Messiah on our behalf, when we read a book like Leviticus, it's not, therefore, just something from the past, right? If our Messiah works atonement for us, and we have a book of the Bible dedicated to describing atonement and how it works, then it behooves us to pay careful attention to the rituals, uh, because if we understand biblical atonement and the day of atonement, we will better understand who Jesus is and what he accomplished for us through his atonement on our behalf. According to the writer of the book of Hebrews, Messiah has become our high priest. And that is, as the author of Hebrews describes it, uh, if you think about it in terms of fractals, that the tabernacle uh that you read about in Exodus and Leviticus was a fractal of the heavenly tabernacle, the one that we can't see, the one not made with hands. Or Hebrews will also use the language that the one below was a shadow of the one above. And we've talked about this before. What's the thing about a shadow, right? If I'm waving my hand and I'm looking at my shadow, right? If I do this and my shadow and the arm of my shadow doesn't do that, I probably should be scared, right? What's the shadow do? The shadow does everything I do, right? And so when scripture talks about that the tabernacle below, which we're reading about in Exodus and Leviticus and so forth, is a shadow of one above, it means that the things that go on below are a mirror of what's actually happening above. But it also, when you think about a shadow, right? When I do this, you know, my shadow's hands doing that and so forth. But like when I look at my hand, I can see things like, wow, I can see the details of my knuckle, I can see this, my fingernails, I can even see like a hangnail in my, you know, ring finger there. I can see that I'm wearing a ring, I've got a bracelet, I can see a lot of details, and in that shadow, I can't tell any of that, right? Sometimes I barely can tell I have five fingers in my shadow, right? I mean, I can tell the general move, but I can't tell all of the specifics, but I can tell some things from the shadow. Same kind of thing, right? And so the shadow does inform us, but it doesn't give us absolutely everything. And so the book of Hebrews tells us that Messiah is our high priest, but he's not a high priest of Aaron. He's not Levitical, he's not from Levi, he's um from the tribe of Judah, and so his priesthood's different. He's uh from the order of Melchizedek. Well, what does that mean? Well, Melchizedek was a priest, but he was also a king. And so we have a priest and a king, all right? And not only that, I mean, that's what Melchizedek means in Hebrew. It's two words, Malchizedek. Machi, king, melek, zedek, righteousness. He's a king of righteousness, right? Machized, he's a king of righteousness. And uh, one of the things about Melchizedek, Melchizedek, we know from the scriptures, he has no beginning and he has no end, right? And so what do we know about our Messiah, right? He's eternal, he has no beginning and he has no end. We also know that before the Aaronic priesthood, the priesthood of Aaron, that the priesthood was always found in the family, and it was the firstborn son of every family that was the priest. And so being the firstborn of his father, that is the type of order of priest that our Messiah is. He's the order of Mohizedek, but he's still much the high priest, and so much of what we learn about the high priest in Exodus and Leviticus would still apply to him. Uh, and he enters into a holy of holies, but it's the one above, right? It's the one above. That is the actual throne room of his father, the actual throne room of God himself, the place no one else could dare enter and live. And there he applies blood, but it's his own blood for atonement, to cover us, to provide safety and protection for us. He enters into the protection of God so that he might usher us in as well. And so you have passages like this in Hebrews chapter 9, beginning in verse 11. But when Messiah appeared as a high priest of good things to come, he entered the holy of holies through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is, the one above. And that is to say, not of this creation, not the one below, not the shadow, and not through the blood of goats and calves, like the one below, but through his own blood, and he entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. And so Messiah is our high priest, uh a minister in the sanctuary and in the true tabernacle, which the Lord has pitched, and not man. And therein he applied his blood, and therefore the ceremony of the day of atonement, it uniquely patterns the work of the Messiah. And so when you read a book like Hebrews, you'll see that Hebrews very much takes the the pattern of Yom Kippur and what's described for Yom Kippur, like in this week's Torah portion, and very much applies it to the overall work of the Messiah, specifically his death, his sacrifice, the atonement of his blood. And because of that, we are able to enter boldly into the presence of God because his blood has made atonement for us. That is, it provides a covering for us. And today he still stands interceding on our behalf before the throne of God, just like a high priest. All right. Do not judge until you've been in the same position. I actually want to stay in this set of verses here in Leviticus 16, but I want to look at it from a different angle. I want to look at it from that darash angle, that homiletical application angle as we go through the garden. And I give a little bit of a different translation. This is more of the FIV translation, the foster international version here in Leviticus 16, verses 3 through 4. So here, let's read the text. With this shall Aaron come into the sanctuary with a young bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering, and he shall put on a sacred linen tunic, linen breeches, shall be upon his flesh, and he shall gird himself with a linen sash, and cover his head with a linen turban. They are sacred vestments. He shall immerse himself in water and then put them on. Now, here I want to, again, like I said, I want to take uh an application here because I've already kind of dropped the hint. Normally, this is not the way a priest, a high priest, this is talking about the high priest here. Normally, this is not how a high priest would dress. So basically, what you have going on here is the high priest is being told to change his clothes. And he's being told to change his clothes on the Day of Atonement, because the day of atonement is the day of the year where he is going to go into the Holy of Holies, that place he only goes once a year, essentially as close as any human's ever going to get to go into the very throne room of God. And there, not only will he do it for himself, and not only will he do it for the space of the tabernacle, but he will do it for every human being that's in Klais Israel, in that community. He will go and make atonement for them. He will go and mediate for them and on their behalf and make atonement for them. And so as he does that, it's interesting, it's very interesting that to do that, he doesn't wear the million dollar outfit, which quite literally would probably be a million dollar outfit. The thing is loaded with gold, it's loaded with precious stones, it's loaded with, I told you about that blue fabric that's not only super valuable today, but it was even more valuable back then, right? I mean, he doesn't wear that. You think. That's what it would be made for. I mean, it was loaded not only with expensive stuff, but it was like spiritual technology, right? It was the umim and thumim, it was all of those kinds of things. But he changes out of that into the common priest's clothes, into the common man clothes as he goes before God to mediate for the common man, right? And there, there, I think we have something, and that's worth looking into. And this is where Labal Shem Tov picks up on something. Bal Shem Tov taught that in order to help alleviate others' suffering or to help elevate another person spiritually, we have to be able to descend or at least be willing to descend to the level of those who need our help so that we can lift them out of their present circumstance or out of their present level of consciousness. So the Bal Shinto says, look, if you really want to help someone out, you have to be willing to descend to where they're at. You have to go to where they're at and then meet them where they're at. And then once you meet them where they're at, then you can bring them to where you are. Okay? That was a very big thing for the Bosham Tov. By the way, it's a very big thing for Jesus as well. And I think once we talk about this, you'll see Jesus did this more than one time in the Gospels. Uh the Bal Shim Tob found scriptural support for this in this set of verses here, uh, with the high priest wearing only the four simple white garments of the common Levite priest on Yom Kippur instead of his usual eight very expensive, highly specialized garments. But by wearing the special, I mean by wearing the simple garments worn by the ordinary priests, the high priest was essentially lowering himself to a level where he could relate to all of those that he hoped to find atonement for. Aaron, who was to be the high priest, needed to experience this sin and all of its consequences to some degree, so that he would be able to truly relate to all of those who would come to the tabernacle to do tatuva, to do repentance. So the Bal Shem Tov made this concept a central pillar of his philosophy, his theology. There's a story about this of Rabbi Shmuel, who was a descendant, uh spiritual descendant of the Balshem Tov. He was the fourth Rebbe of Chabad. He was also known as the Maharash. And like most Rebbe, he advised those who came to him and he would bless them and he would give them spiritual guidance. And his assistant was always puzzled by the fact that after his Rebbe, his teacher, would meet with individuals, he was always soaked in sweat. And he and his assistant was just puzzled because he's like, you know, I know it's it can be stressful, you know, meeting with people and them, you know, confessing sins to you or giving you some of their life's problems and they're wanting your advice, and maybe it's stressful trying to figure out what to say to them or pray with them or find what scripture to share with them. And, you know, I understand that, but like you're not doing anything physical. Like, how in the world you look like you've like, you know, just done a like a workout, like you've ran 10 miles. Like, why do you sweat so much after meeting the needs of the spiritual needs of people? And so he finally asked the Rebbe this, and the Rebbe explains that uh that's what happens because he has to take off his clothes and change clothes so many times. And his assistant was like, What in the world are you talking about? I'm in the, you know, I'm in the room, I'm your assistant. Like, you haven't changed any clothes? Like, what are you talking about? Right? And so he said, Look, for me to truly understand their plight, to truly understand what they need from me, I have to take off my clothes and put on their clothes, and I have to walk in their shoes, and I have to live their life in order to impart the proper advice, give the right blessing, and provide them with the right hope. And he explained to his assistant that changing clothes so many times in such a short period was very arduous for him, and thus he was always soaked with perspiration when they were finished. And the Baal Shimtob determinedly taught the importance of loving every person and all of creation, and he stressed that if you truly want to elevate others, you must risk lowering oneself to their level. Or think of it in another way, you have to be willing to meet people where they're at. And so whether that's being a Jewish man going into a Samaritan territory at high noon and meeting a woman of ill repute and meeting her exactly where she is at, or on some other occasion, it means meeting people where they're at in order so that you can give them exactly what they need. But we see the greatest example of this in the incarnation of our Messiah Himself. The one who could claim pure and total equality with God Himself, humbles himself to become born of a woman, to live out our life and ultimately die our death. If you want to talk about lowering yourself to the level of someone else, but he does so also that he might elevate us, save us, and lift us up. And so the incarnation itself is no greater example of exactly what Leviticus 16 verses three and four are talking about, where our Messiah exchanges his high priest outfit, the one he wears above, and the tabernacle not made with hands, in the throne room of the divine council above, he sheds that in exchange not for linen breeches and linen turbans, but for a skin suit and for a death. But it's also that he can reach our level, and again, back to the book of Hebrews, so that we could have a high priest who is not unable to sympathize with us, but one that knows us in every every way possible, so that when he mediates for us, he perfectly can do so. It's like C.S. Lewis said, when you have someone praying for you and mediating for you, you don't need someone necessarily, and not that he does he doesn't mean it's not, he doesn't want people praying for you, he doesn't mean it that way. You got to take his point at the bigger point. He says, when you want someone really mediating for you and praying for you and so forth, you don't want someone who's been in your boat and failed just like you. Like, because it's like, how big a help can they really be in the end? They've failed just like you. You want someone who's been in the same boat as you are and has succeeded. That's who you want, giving you advice and mediating for you and praying for you and pulling you out, and that's exactly what we have in our high priest. That's the clothes he's changed, just like this particular Rabbi Shmuel. All right. Defining and achieving holiness. So, holiness, as I mentioned earlier, is what the book of Leviticus is all about. It really is. That's why uh, you know, whether it was in ancient times, including when Jesus was a wee little boy, a wee little lad to modern times, uh, that is where religious Jews learn to read. They don't learn to read, they don't learn their Bible starting in Genesis, they learn to read and they start learning their Bible in Leviticus. And you think, well, why in the world would you do that? Because it teaches them what holiness is, teaches them about that. And within Leviticus itself, these two portions, and even more so Kedeshim, the name itself means holy, holiness, um speaks about this, what for us is an abstract concept. So let's try to define a little bit about it so that we can narrow it in. Um maybe one of the easiest ways to define it is by exploring how holiness is attained. So when we read through Leviticus, don't get lost in the weeds, but look at a Goodyear blimp view. How does it describe how holiness is attained? We can still pull insight from that. Within a legal concept context, uh Kedusha, holiness, sanctity, is usually attained through separation. It's usually attained through self-discipline, it's usually attained through refinement. Leviticus is very clear on that. Holiness comes through separation, self-discipline, and refinement. By distancing ourselves from things that are evil, that are contrary to the will of God or the ways of God, by distancing ourselves from impurity and other various worldly energies that would block our spiritual channels and our spiritual sensitivities, when we distance ourselves from that, when we separate ourselves from that, when we know the categories of that, and we clearly know that what that category is, then we can become better vessels that are capable of not only receiving holy things, but also of radiating holiness. Indeed, one of the fundamental premises underlying all of the mitzvot, the connections, the so-called commandments, is the constant requirement to separate and distinguish between pure and impure, clean and unclean, um, good and evil, permitted and forbidden, holy time and mundane time. Doesn't mean mundane time is bad, it just means it's mundane, it means it's not holy. Not holy doesn't mean evil, it just means not holy. Uh between holy space and mundane space. Uh and that's, you know, something again, uh, these are things that still could be learned by us, including like space. Uh, what makes a space holy is not necessarily just because God said, you know, 47120 Romeo Planck Road is holy. You know, there's nothing that says that in the Bible, clearly. But one of the things that makes something holy from Leviticus isn't just because God says so. Now, sometimes that is what makes something holy, by the way. That is sometimes what it is, like Jerusalem, for instance. But other times what makes something holy is when we decide just to make it separate, when we separate it, it becomes holy. And so if we say, hey, this building is separate, only worship and holy things happen in here, and even within this, behind this rail, only things like sacraments and holy things and preaching go on, then we have made that holy. And therefore, when we allow mundane things to invade it, it doesn't mean the mundane is evil, but it does mean we've now compromised its holiness. And then we may wonder why has the Holy Spirit walked out the building? Well, because we no longer have separated it. That's why separation matters, right? Appropriate separation matters. So these are things when we read through Leviticus, when we still take it from a Goodyear blimp view, we can still we can still see what God was doing, how God was operating, right? Um space matters, and what you do in the space matters, and it it also conveys a message, it matters. And so you you can come across passages like in Leviticus 20 and verse, beginning in verse 24, I am the Lord your God who has separated you from the peoples. Uh, in other words, if aliens from Mars come and land on planet Earth and they're like, uh, don't, I'm not, don't show me your leader, right? Show me the Christians, show me these people. I've I stayed in a uh, you know, you know, holiday and express last night and read this thing from the Gideons. Show me these people that believe this book. You should be able to find them because they should be separate. They should not look like everybody else. They should not act like everybody else. They should not talk like everybody else. They should not behave like everybody else. Their vocabulary should not be like everybody else. They should be separate. You shall therefore distinguish between clean and unclean, between, you know, and it goes on, right? But that's an important thing about holiness. But along with the notion of separation, holiness is also associated with designating, assigning, and choosing. In the temple period, an animal and object that was chosen and designated to be sacrificed or donated to the temple, it was called Hekdish, a word that comes from the same root as holiness, literally meant sanctified. Thus, choice in and of itself is a fundamental aspect of holiness. This is especially true when it is God who is the one that chooses. It is important to note that most of the concepts we associate with holiness, such as things like the Hebrew language, the Bible, holy days, Jerusalem, it all attained that stature because God chose them. Ultimately, those objects, times, places, or people that God chose became holy because he chose, designated, or separated them for a task or mission. What does this teach us about the relationship between choice and our search for holiness? Well, the sages once taught and tractate Berchut, a dream follows its interpretation. In other words, if we put a good spin on a dream and interpret it in a positive way, it will manifest positively. In this sense, life is very much like a dream. Daily events and occurrences are open to a myriad of interpretations. The way we experience life is ultimately determined by how we choose to interpret what happens to us. A life of holiness is ultimately the result of our choosing to be involved with those things that God has chosen to be special and holy. The more we surround ourselves with Scripture, the more we learn it, the more we give honor to and enjoy the calendar that God gave, the more we connect to Israel or Jerusalem, the more we can understand and ultimately integrate holiness into our lives. And yet, above and beyond all that we have said regarding attaining holiness, the Slonomar Rebbe stresses another dimension numerous times in his great work, Nitivot Shalom. He says, Ultimately, holiness is always a gift from God Himself. Ultimately, holiness is bestowed upon us from above. By choosing a lifestyle infused with Scripture, with misvot connections God has given to us, including like the sacraments and worship, we greatly increase the likelihood of our being granted the unique and special quality that we call holiness. Laws and rules. Yeah, good old testament stuff, right? How do we relate to that? Leviticus 19, verse 37. I gotta give you a little Hebrew here. Therefore you shall observe all my statutes, laws, because you pick an English translation, it's gonna have a different word there, coming from the Hebrew word huchatai. And all my judgments, statutes, because believe it or not, they might have judgments up there and laws down below, right? Because it's coming from the Hebrew Mishpatim and perform them. I am the Lord. My point is, if you're not careful, you might slip into thinking in Hebrew and English, huh and Mishpatim, they're just synonyms. Statutes, laws, judgments, rules, you know, all this, they're all the same thing. No, they're not. No, no, they're not. Hukhatai or not Mishpatim. Mishpatim or not huchatai. All right. So here it's so easy, like again, English translation can say you shall observe my laws and rules or my statutes and my judgments. I don't there could be a million ways you could do this. So that's why I gotta give you the Hebrew, because I don't know what English translation you have. But they're not just synonyms, these are two different meanings, like they're on different spectrums. Okay. So I want to unpack this seemingly harmless verse that's actually quite deep. So most of us would like to think that the Torah, the Bible, contains a religious tradition that values things like reason and debate as one of its signal values. And we can point to the Bible's frequent recourse of providing reasons for its having laws, the reason it has commandments, all the discussion and logic throughout all of the ages between, you know, the church fathers, the different kinds of scholars throughout the ages, all of the philosophical rigor in the medieval period, all the way up until the modern day, all of the discussion about, you know, the things in the Bible and why it's important and why it's in there, and that we value all of that, and that this is part of our faith, and that we characterize our religion based on values like love of learning and passion for justice, care for the underdog and the downtrodden, uh, yearning for God and a life of holiness and good works. And all of that's true. All of that's part and parcel of our faith in some degree, for sure. But the paradox is this: that all of those virtues are not monopolies of a biblical tradition. Lots of other peoples and lots of other cultures and lots of other religions would value a whole lot of what we would say is part of our faith. So if we're not distinct by a lot of this stuff, including our values, then what makes us distinct as a people of God, a people of the book, a people of the Bible? In a few concise chapters of the Holiness Code, Leviticus, and in particular Leviticus chapter 19, the Torah lays out a way of life and guidelines for living unparalleled in any other time or place. And it opens with God's charge to people, you shall keep my huchatai, again, my statutes, my laws, and my mishpatim, again, my judgments, my statutes, my rules, and perform them. Ever attentive to the subtle nuances of the words of the Torah, the ancient rabbis often inquired, what is the distinction between a hok, which is just the singular for hukatai, and a mishpat, the singular for Mishpatim. What's the distinction between these two? Because God wouldn't waste precious space on just mere synonyms, so there must be significant meaning to each term. What is the distinction? Rashi answers the question by noting that the huchatai are those things that come from God that would seemingly have absolutely no logical reason, no logical basis. They are simply there because we find them in our Bible. Thus, you have things like don't wear linen and wool together. Bread and wine will forgive you your sins. Splashing with water in this name will forgive you your sins and impart upon you the Holy Spirit. There's nothing I can do to prove that scientifically. You would never ever come up with that on your own in any kind of rational thought. The only reason you know to even think of that idea is because it's in the Bible. If it were not in the Bible, you would not have ever thunk it. That's a huchatai. We obey it, we do it, we believe it, we perform it, right? We, you know, because it says so. We can't test it, right? If I take the bread and the wine after a consecration and I take it to a laboratory, it ain't gonna tell me it's type A, B, blood, and it isn't gonna tell me that's skin, right? But we are still gonna tell you it's the body and blood of our Messiah, right? Why? Why am I gonna tell you that? Because the Bible says so, right? I can't prove it. It makes no logical sense. It's a huchatai. Okay? That's what it is. We do them, we observe them, whatever it is, it's because they we simply do them, and then after doing them, after living them, after experiencing them, that's when we try to understand either their spiritual meaning or their symbolic value or why God would have had us do that in the first place. Only after doing them will we ever grow to even begin to understand them. And so while I may never fully be able to explain every nuance of a sacrament, after having experienced them, I can certainly tell you, I do know they're transformational, I do know they make a difference, right? I can then begin to understand, oh, here's why God would want me doing this. It does matter, it does make a difference, it is important, right? But I would never come to that realization until after I did it. And so part of it is uh, do you love me and trust me enough to actually do something that you would never do on your own? And that even others would tell you it's stupid and foolish to do. Will you still do it? And remember when we were in Exodus, what did they say at the foot of Sinai? We will do, and then we will Shema, then we will understand, right? That was their great profession. Like, we don't know what is happening. We're having this great theophany. There's like fire on top of the mountain, Moses is coming down glowing. We know, like the whole world is changing, so we don't know what's going on. We've got these tablets now. We'll do it. We don't know exactly what we're gonna be doing, we'll do it. And then somewhere along the line, by God's grace, it'll make sense, we'll figure it out, or we'll understand it, or it'll it'll fit in. That's huchatai. This other category, the Mishpatim, that's more logical. That's what makes society function. And that's something you could come across that maybe you don't even need the Bible for. Like, you don't necessarily have to have the Bible to say, you know, if you want your community to work, don't kill each other, don't steal each other's stuff, you know, have compassion for animals, be kind to your neighbor. Right? They're profound, they're marvelous, but you could derive a lot of those from reason. Um, and so that's Mishpatim, right? They're still, because the Bible gives them to us, we know these ones are indeed God ordained, and maybe you could even then argue that's why they make sense to us. God wants everybody to follow them, and you have the whole natural law argument, and I'm on board with that now, fine and dandy. But in other words, it's natural law. Like, you don't have to have divine revelation, you don't have to do first to understand later with, hey, can we all get along and not kill each other? Right? Probably gonna get probably gonna understand that. Like, even if you're gonna have, I don't know, let's play this game called softball. Well, if it's gonna work, guess what? We're probably gonna need some rules, right? Everybody's probably gonna be like, yeah, you don't need Moses on Mount Sinai to come down with rules for softball, right? Some of them are just logical, okay? That would be Mishpatim. Okay? There are two ways that a practice can be a biblical practice. In the category of the Mishpat, Mishpatim, it's not that the action is exclusively practiced or valued by a believer, but rather it's the context in which that act is embedded. So a Buddhist might value compassion for all living things, but would not connect that value to many of the other commandments in the Bible. We might share similar notions of how to implement that universal value, but where we get it and how we contextualize it are ultimately going to be different. So one form of distinction lies not with the value itself, but with how we derive it, the source where we claim it comes from, and how we sustain it. But with the huhattai, the distinctiveness is more thorough. And this is again with holiness, this is one of the things that would truly separate us. These practices exist solely because they're found in our sacred writings. Even if we can't think of any persuasive explanation for them, they do not lose any authority as components of what it means to be a member of this community or a follower of our God. Whether or not, again, it separating linen and wool or bread and wine as body and blood makes any sense, or whether pouring water on a baby's head makes any sense, whether or not it provides a spiritual high or a deepened sense of wonder, its value lies at a deeper level. It roots us in a practice that is uniquely biblical and trains us to respond to the Bible on a different basis than simply satisfying our own desire, our own need, our own individuality, or our own sense of rationality. So performing a huchatai, precisely because we don't understand it, is an act of holiness. It is an act of sanctification, it is an act of loving obedience, it is pure and it is simple. But here is one more distinguishing connection. One that links the hukitai and the Mishpatim. Sometimes, not always, but sometimes we can take on a huchatai without understanding it or its ramifications. And as we grow in it, and as we grow in our study of God's word, and as we grow in the practice of that particular action, its actual logical basis may become more apparent to us over time. And God's logic of it may become apparent over time. And in fact, that's what Rashi says. Rashi says not only will some of the logic of the hukhatai become apparent as you become more spiritually mature, but its logic will become fully apparent in the world to come. But what was once a hukhatai may ultimately become a Mishpatim for you. And I've had that experience. What once seemed so mystical and aloof and unexplainable and irrational, now I think is simplistic and like, well, of course, like, of course. But you have to be willing to just do it and go for it and stick it out and continue to practice it. That process of spiritual growth and maturation can only happen, though, if we're willing to let our deeds exceed our grasp. Only if we're willing to let our doing precede our understanding, can we put ourselves in a position to cherish and feel enriched by it? And just as our spiritual ancestors had to do at the foot of Sinai when they said, we will do and then we will shema, then we will understand, we must be willing to commit to the practice before understanding of mitzvot and doing as God has asked us before fully understanding each one. Our spiritual ancestors recognized that their ability to live as people of God, as holy, set apart, and chosen, and transmit that faith to another generation required cultivating the huchhatai no less than the Mishpatim. That reality is no less true today. Our behavior precedes our comprehension, and our spirituality is a consequence of our action. Do first, and your feelings will follow. Wait for the feelings first, and you may never get to the next action. Love your neighbor. One of the most important methods used by the sages and the subsequent commentators is that of juxtaposition. Along with the more standard relationship of words, verses, and Torah portions that are situated right next to one another, there are also the system of linking verses and words far apart that are connected due to either similar wording or their uniqueness or their structure. And so if you have the Hebraic toolbox, this is the tool that's called verbal tally. And there is a unique verbal tally in this week's portion, and it's so unique that Jesus the Messiah uses it, by the way. Recognizing this juxtaposition of verses or deeper layers or unique words is essentially seeing that they're soulmates and how they complement one another and comment on one another and add insight into one another. And so there is a unique word in the Bible. It is the Hebrew word vehta. It only occurs outside of the New Testament. It only occurs in Leviticus 19 and Deuteronomy 6. It only occurs there. And by the way, that's what Jesus picks up on. That's why it'll occur in the New Testament, because it's really Jesus quoting Leviticus 19 and Deuteronomy 6. So it sort of occurs in the New Testament, but only because it's quoting these two places. Only occurs twice, so it's very unique, but they're far apart. Leviticus 19 and Deuteronomy 6 are not close to one another. But it's a very unique word. It comes from ahava, love, a very common word, but it's a unique phrasing of the word love. The ahavta. And so they're seen as soulmates, a verbal tally, which means it informs the meaning of the other. Okay? This is a Hebraic way of understanding how to interpret the Bible. Okay? So in Leviticus 19, vehta is used in this sense. Oops. I didn't you'll have to trust me and you'll have to look it up. I meant to put it in there. Now it's up to you. It isn't too hard. It's in Leviticus 19. It's used like this in um Leviticus 19. You shall love, right? That's what Vehavtah means. You shall love. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. You shouldn't have a hard time finding that in Leviticus 19. If not, Google it, right? You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Vehavtah, your neighbor as yourself. It's used in Deuteronomy 6, verse 5. I do know that one. But it doesn't say you shall love your neighbors yourself, right? It says, and you shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, and with all of your soul, and with all of your me'ud. There's no translation for me'od, by the way. Means with all your stuff. And by stuff, it means your guts, your heart, your soul, but also your wallet and your property. By stuff, it means everything. Spiritually, physically, materially, economically, influential, anything you got. That's mayod. Hard to translate. Right? So they comment on one another. What it means is, and this is why Jesus quotes it, what's the greatest commandment, rabbi? Well, you love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, and your maod. But then he says, Oh, Veyahavtah. He interprets, imagine this. Jesus, the Jewish rabbi, trying to interprets the Bible like, oh, I don't know, a Jewish rabbi. Veyahavtah, that's why he says, but there's one just like it. There's another Veyahavtah is what he's saying. You shall love your neighbors yourself. He wasn't saying that was a subordinate, he was saying they're the same thing. If you don't love your fellow human being, you don't love God. How you love your fellow human being is how you love God. And how you love God is how you love your fellow human being. They are tied together. That's why it was such a difficult teaching that Jesus gave them. That's why some of them were like, eh, I think I'm out with this guy. Or they then wanted to debate, well, who's my neighbor? That's where that conversation then went. Because then they wanted to be like, well, okay, I'm following you, I'm tracking you as long as my neighbor is the Jew who's in the same political party as me. Well, I'm tracking as long as my neighbor is, well, I guess the same people in my country. And she's like, no. Then your neighbor's like, you're this is the Samaritan, i.e., the other, the person you don't, the least, the person you least want to love, that's your neighbor. It's your fellow human being, it's everybody. So how you love them is how you love God. And if you're currently hating on people and hating people, you're not really loving God. You see why people either were in on Jesus or way out on Jesus. But that's where Jesus got that interpretation from. Got it straight from Veahftah. That's why he also said that phrase, and there's one like it. He quoted Deuteronomy 6.5, vehtah. That's probably all he even said. Veahtah, because they would have known that's what he meant, because it's part of the Shema. Shema Yisrael, Adonaya Lehino, Adonaichad, Deuteronomy 6.4. And then it goes on, Vehtah et Adonaia Leheka, vehicle, vehicle meodeka. Right. All he would have had to say is Vehtah. And there's one more Vehtah, Leviticus 19. In Hebrew, that word, Meod, with all your might, with all your stuff, with all your soul. If you permute it, as we've learned they do in the Hebraic worldview, it permutes to Adam. One more way of understanding loving others in the full sense is loving God. The deeper aspects of Torah also identify two types of light. One is called or Yashar, straight light, coming from above to below, and then there's or kosher, which is returning light, which is the product of a person's efforts and love rising from below to above. Paradoxically, the sages taught that the returning light and potential can rise to an even higher place than from where it originally emanates. For straight light originates from after creation, where returning light reaches levels of light before creation. The word Viahafta. Numerically, if you add up the letters, remember Hebrew is an alpha numeric language. Its letters are also numbers. So six plus one plus five plus two and so forth. If you add up its letters, it equals 414, which is exactly twice the word for light. Or light in Hebrew is 207. 207 times two is 414, hinting at these concepts I just talked about with light. The idea of straight light and returning light applies similarly to relations between people. Each person has the opportunity to be a channel for both types of light. When one reaches out to another, he or she is expressing straight light. When that light is responded to with the same intensity and feeling, that is returning light. May we always be a channel to direct love to others, to return our love when it is directed to us. Veahta. May we double our love. May we love the Lord our God and may we love our neighbor as ourselves. May we have not only straight light, but returning light. Amen. And we will conclude there for this evening. Hopefully, I gave you some good nuggets for this week's portion. And we will continue next week in the book of Leviticus, but let's close with the blessing. Baruchatah Adunai no tenatara. Blessed are you, Lord God, who has given to us the gift that is the Torah. Amen. Shlom, shlom, go in peace. Hi, everyone. Thank you for engaging this teaching. You know, we at Emmanuel have as one of our goals to make our teachings available online. To anyone, everywhere, at any time, whether that's through a podcast or our YouTube channel or an MP3 download. It is our gift to you, and we want you to use it however you see fit. Also, if you feel motivated or desired to support future teachings, you can do so with the donate button at the bottom of our teaching page. That's found at immlutheran.org forward slash teaching. Again, thank you for participating in our teachings here and hope to see you or engage with you somehow, some way, somewhere. God bless.