BaMidbar / Shavuot

"By the House of Their Fathers"

This week's Parashah begins the fourth book of Moshe and has the same title as the book itself, BaMidbar. The title of this book, in Hebrew, comes from the fourth word from its opening phrase, Vaidaber YHVH el-Moshe ba’midbar... "And Yehovah spoke to Moshe in the wilderness...” Midbar, wilderness, designates the place of the events in the book. The current English title, “Numbers,” is derived from the Septuagint - the Greek translation done before the Common Era - and was named as such based on the numerous censuses of the Israelites.

The greater portion of the Book is devoted to the trials of the Israelites in their wanderings in the wilderness after the Exodus until forty years later are about to enter the Promised Land. But BaMidbar is not just a chronicle of the outstanding events during the journey in the wilderness, it also interprets these events in light of God's ethics and shows His faithfulness in every distress and danger as well as the severity of His judgments against rebellion and apostasy. In addition, it records the teachings and ordinances relating to the Sanctuary, the camp, the purification of life, and such civil and political ordinances as would enable the Israelites to fulfill the task God assigned to them among the nations.

The wilderness journey begins by taking a census: “And Yehovah spoke to Moshe in the wilderness of Sinai, in the Tent of Meeting, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they came out from the land of Egypt, saying, ‘Take a census of all the congregation of the people of Israel, by families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of names, every male by their polls. From twenty years old and upward, all who are able to go forth to war in Israel; you and Aaron shall count them by their armies. And with you there shall be a man of every tribe; every one chief of the house of his fathers.’” BaMidbar (Numbers) 1:1-4

There are two interesting and beautiful facts about this census.

— First, the counting is to be done “by the house of their fathers,” therefore, this tells us that the Biblical way of reckoning one's genealogy, or Jewishness, is through the line of the father. The rabbinical reasoning though, is that the tribal affiliation is indeed through the father, but the nationality (Jewishness) is matrilineal, if that makes sense. However, if we look at King David's genealogy, the most revered Jewish king, the matrilineal descent goes back to his great grandmother Ruth, which was a Moabite, a Gentile, even though the rabbinical interpretation is that she "converted" to Judaism, but his patrilineal descent goes way back through Judah, the Jewish line. Moreover, all prophecies about David's descendants are not given though his matrilineal descent but through his father's lineage. God chose this patrilineal lineage to show the accuracy of His prophecies and for us to understand that based on these prophecies, at the right time, He sent the Redeemer through the line of David – thus through the line of Judah - namely Yeshua of Natzeret, to make atonement for us and to cover our sins with His shed blood. Therefore, the patrilineal reckoning cannot be dismissed as not being Jewish on the contrary, it is very Jewish. Not only that, but it is of a vital importance to understand who the real Messiah was to be.

This emphasis of the line of the fathers is paramount to our understanding of God's prophecies, because this patrilineal record was lost with the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE. Because these records were lost, after 70 CE no one could have, or can, prove his lineage through King David, therefore, Messiah had to have come before the destruction of the Temple, because only then the prophecy about Messiah's birth and His claim could have been verified and proven. Therefore, there can be no other Messiah and no other message of salvation apart from Yeshua's message from 2000 years ago.

God chose the Jewish nation to be the bearer of the Good News and with God there are no coincidences. There is no coincidence in choosing the line of the fathers to tell the Jews exactly who the Messiah would be, and there is no coincidence in the destruction of the Temple which points out that the messianic prophecies were fulfilled in Messiah’s coming before its destruction as prophesied by Daniel in chapter 9. Indeed, He came in the person of Yeshua of Natzeret, born in Beit Lechem, proven with signs and wonders to be the one sent by God. The irony here is that the prophecy of a redeemer through the son of Yishai of Beit Lechem, through David, through the line of Judah, it is well understood but not promoted by the rabbinate even though it is incorporated into the Friday night Shabbat service in the prayer "Lecha Dodi."

— Second fact is that the final number of the men above twenty years of age from all tribes - except the tribe of Levi - was 603,550, which was the exact number of men from all tribes including the tribe of Levi from a census taken one year earlier in Exodus 38:26. This earlier census was done before the construction of the Tabernacle, the Mishkan, and was for the purpose of raising funds for its construction. This earlier census was for everyone, from every tribe, to contribute half a shekel for the construction of the Holy Mishkan. This contribution was a symbol for an atonement for their souls. The second census was done after the Mishkan was finished and God consecrated the tribe of Levi to serve in it, thus, excluding this tribe from the census. By ending up with the exact same number, even after God took out 22,000 Levites to serve Him, signifies that providing for the spiritual matters is an issue of the heart.

God provides the means for everyone to participate in the spiritual uplifting of the community, but it is up to us to contribute. In the case of Israelites, He provided 22,000 teenagers to mature to be twenty years old and, to show them that this was not a coincidence, God asked them later to count the firstborn males (Numbers 3:43) to replace the Levites as a redemption, and their number was 22,273. There were 273 more teenagers than the number of Levites. The lesson here is that God provides and He provides abundantly, but it is up to us to make it happen. God gave Israelis no excuse not to contribute – or contribute less – for the spiritual matters and He gives us no excuse for not contributing to the spiritual growth of our communities, which in the end is for our benefit.

To show the centrality of the Mishkan in their lives, God places the tribe of Levi around it and tells the other tribes to encamp surrounding them, at a distance, on all four sides, by arranging the twelve tribes into four formations of three tribes each — known as banners — with each “banner” led by a designated tribe. On the east the leader would be the tribe of Judah, on the south the tribe of Reuben, on the west the tribe of Ephraim, and on the north the tribe of Dan.

It must have been a beautiful site to see all these tribes with their flags surrounding the Tabernacle, the symbol of God in their midst. May we all take to heart this imagery and have God in the center of our lives and contribute abundantly to the spiritual growth of our communities.

"SHAVUOT - FEAST OF WEEKS - Monday June 2nd"

This is a special Holyday Parashah interrupting the yearly reading.

The Shavuot festival was celebrated primarily as a thanksgiving for the wheat harvest – the second First Fruits; it falls seven weeks after the barley harvest – the first First Fruits, when an Omer of the new produce was offered. The Torah refers to Shavuot as Hag haKatsir (the Feast of the Harvest) and Yom haBikkurim (the Day of First Fruits), observed by offerings of the best ripe produce of the fields. Shavuot is the second of the “Shalosh Regakim,” the three pilgrimage festivals: “Three times in a year shall all your males appear before Yehovah your God in the place which He shall choose: at Chag haMatzot, and at Chag haShavuot, and at Chag haSukkot.” Devarim 16:16

In the course of time, as a result of the transformation of the agricultural festivals into historical commemorations, the additional significance of Shavuot as the Festival of the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai completely overshadowed its original harvest festival. The tradition has been that the Torah was given to Moshe on the month of Sivan at Shavuot, based on Exodus chapter 19: “In the third month after the sons of Yisra'el had gone forth out of the land of Mitzrayim, on that same day they came into the wilderness of Sinai,” and later set in the calendar by the Talmud - Mas.Pesachim 68b.

Beginning with the second day of Passover, seven weeks, or forty-nine days, were carefully counted, and the fiftieth day was celebrated as the festival of the First Fruits. “You shall count seven weeks, from the day when the sickle is first put to the standing grain. You shall then keep the Feast of Weeks in honor of the Lord your God, and the measure of your freewill offering shall be in proportion to the blessing that the Lord your God bestowed on you. You shall rejoice before the Lord your God with your son and daughter, your male and female servants, and the Levite of your community, as well as the stranger and the fatherless and the widow among you." Devarim (Deuteronomy) 16:9-11

Shavuot is called Atzereth (Assembly) in the Talmud, in the sense that it serves as a concluding festival to Pesach.

In the observances of Shavuot, the traditional as well as the agricultural aspects are reflected. The Decalogue, the Ten Commandments, is read in the synagogue on the first day. Plants and flowers, reminiscent of the slopes of Sinai, decorate the bimah and the Aron haKodesh. The book of Ruth, for its description of a summer harvest in Israel, and the famous liturgical poem Akdamut are read before the reading of the Torah on the first day. Milk dishes are the customary foods, symbolizing the Torah which is likened to milk, according to the allegorical interpretation of the book of Song of Songs ("Honey and milk are under your tongue").

Shavuot reminds us of the contribution of the Torah to the world. Torah was the first mind-set to recognize the worth of ordinary people, to champion human rights, public education, environmental responsibility, freedom of information, medical ethics, and social action — the whole concept of progress and hope for the future. No other teaching has had a comparative impact on our way of thinking today. It reminds Israel of her obligation to be a "Kingdom of Priests" and a "Holy Nation."

But for the believers Shavuot is more than that. Shavuot is a picture of a spiritual harvest, a harvest of the first fruits imbued with spiritual power, with the outpouring of the Ruach haKodesh. The first century of the Common Era was God's first harvest of those redeemed in the blood of Yeshua haMoshiach - both Jewish and Gentile. "And when the day of Shavuot was fulfilled, they were all together with one mind at the same place. And there was suddenly from Shomayim a sound like the rushing of a violent wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And tongues appeared to them, being divided as fire, resting on each one of them, and all were filled with the Ruach haKodesh." Acts 2:1-4

On Shavuot two loaves of fine flour baked with leaven were presented as offering of first fruits: “You shall bring out of your habitations two wave-loaves of two tenth parts of an efah: they shall be of fine flour, they shall be baked with yeast, for first fruits to Yehovah.” Leviticus 23:17 The symbolism of these two loaves as “first fruits” to God is revealed in the Brit Chadashah by the apostle Ya’akov, James: “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father... Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of His creatures.” Ya’akov 1:17-18

The two loaves represent the Jewish and Gentile believers that God brought together to form a new body, a new creation as the first fruits of believers, the Ekklesia. God redeemed us from the world of sin, from the spiritual Egypt, through the shed blood of His Son. But then why are the two loaves with leaven, the symbol of sin? That is to symbolize that we cannot cleanse ourselves of sin before coming to Him - all our good intentions are but as filthy rags in His eyes. We come to Him with our sins and He is the One who cleanses and makes us holy. “Having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Messiah Yeshua Himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together is growing into a Holy Temple in the Lord; in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.” Ephesians 2:20-22

God has built something else to take the place of the physical Temple in Yerushalayim destroyed in 70 CE - it is a spiritual Beth haMikdash, it is the Ekklesia. It is a Jewish Holy Temple, where Jews and Gentiles are fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Moshiach Yeshua, a mystery in the Tanakh but revealed in the Brit Chadashah. “...to Him who is able to establish you according to my Good News and the preaching of Yeshua the Messiah, and the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret through long ages.” Romans16:25

But the above Ephesians passage tells us something that it is not a mystery, that the foundation of the Ekklesia is Jewish, Jewish, Jewish - Jewish apostles, Jewish prophets and Jewish Messiah. Therefore, Shavuot is the fulfillment of Torah-true Judaism, the hope of the Jewish people and the blessing of the Gentiles so that they might come together in faith as one.

It cost Yeshua a lot to bring us together, to form the Ekklesia. He died executed on a Roman cross shedding His blood and suffering agonizingly in order for us to be united as one Holy Temple in the Spirit. Because of that we owe it to Him to be holy and to love one another as He loved us. “By this everyone will know that you are My talmidim, if you have love for one another." John 13:35

Shabbat Shalom and Chag Shavuot Sameach!

Shabbat Shalom!