Commentaries on Weekly Torah Readings

V'Et'chanan Eikev Re'eh Shoftim Ki Tetze

Ki Tetze (כי תצא) – Deuteronomy 21:10–25:19

by
Jon Thompson

This week's portion Ki Tetze (כי תצא) “when you go out” contains a small section about divorce and remarriage that often goes unnoticed. Thanks to Torah teacher Avi ben Mordechai, who uncovered some important insight into this passage, I will draw from his teachings in this commentary.

YHVH often refers to Israel as His bride, and speaks in terms that show His jealousy for her, His insistence that she keep her wedding vows contained in the Torah, and His desire for her loving companionship. The Prophet Isaiah prophesied to Israel:

“Thus saith YHVH, Where is the bill of your mother's divorcement, whom I have put away? Or which of My creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away.” (Isaiah 50:1)

YHVH put Israel away because of her transgressions, she was His bride, but there was uncleanness in her. Once He put her away and gave her a bill of divorce, by the Torah, He cannot take her back. Our portion lays out the law that forbids the return.

“When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favor in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her: then let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house.
and when she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man's wife.
;and if the latter husband hate her, and write her a bill of divorcement, and giveth it in her hand, and sendeth her out of his house; or if the latter husband die, which took her to be his wife;
her former husband, which sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after that she is defiled; for that is abomination before YHVH: and thou shalt not cause the land to sin, which YHVH thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.”
(Deuteronomy 24:1–4)

Now there is a conundrum. YHVH has promised to be faithful to His bride forever, but as a result of her adultery, He has put her away. Now He is bound not to take her back as His bride since she went off and “married” other gods and attached herself to them. He is bound by His own Torah not to take her back. How can He fulfill His promises to Israel? The apostle Paul recognized both the issue, and saw the solution laid out in the plan of the gospel.

“Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?
For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.
So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.
Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to Him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.” (Romans 7:1–4)

YHVH cannot take Israel back and as long as He lives. But when Yeshua died, then, according to the Torah, “If her husband is dead, she is free from the law that binds her to her husband.” When the first husband, YHVH dies, she is no longer bound by the law to her husband. The marriage is dissolved, the wife is no longer an adulteress.

When Yeshua rose after three days and three nights, He, as YHVH, was able to take Israel again as a bride. Now He can fulfill the promise made to the patriarchs that He would marry Israel to Him forever. Even though His bride was cast away once, through His death and resurrection she can come back to Him.

That is the challenge for each of us. Now that YHVH has made a way for us to return to Him through the gift of Yeshua, what will we do with the gift and opportunity? Shall we continue to sin that grace may abound? YHVH forbid. Let us walk in the newness of life in Yeshua HaMashiach.

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Shoftim (שופטים) – Deuteronomy 16:18–21:9

by
Jon Thompson

“You shall appoint judges and officers in all your towns which YHVH your Elohim gives you, according to your tribes; and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment.
You shall not pervert justice; you shall not show partiality; and you shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and subverts the cause of the righteous.
Justice, and only justice, you shall follow, that you may live and inherit the land which YHVH your Elohim gives you.”
(Deuteronomy 16:18–20)

These verses apply to judges in the judicial sense, but they also apply to those within the community of Israel in positions of trust and decision–making. Their decisions need to be based in the Torah—the definition of righteous. Each time they consider a matter they need to weigh the questions involved against the written Torah.

Precedence has no place in the observant community. It is too easy to stray a hair's breadth away from the truth when deciding a matter. If judges base decisions on preceding conclusions, each successive decision carries the potential of straying farther and farther from Torah truth.

The people of YHVH should not lean on their own understanding, or the understanding of prior judges. They should defer to the written Torah, the leading of the Ruach HaKodesh (רוח הקדש) (Holy Spirit) and the wisdom YHVH gives to the leader or judge for guidance as they adhere to the Torah.

Our portion goes on to explain that if a matter is too difficult for the community's judges, they should take the matter to the judges who sit in Jerusalem. We encounter a problem here, there are no Torah judges sitting in Jerusalem. The Scriptural expectation is that the local judges and the judges in Jerusalem will be Torah knowledgeable, Torah observant and Torah obedient.

The community of YHVH lacks a network of judges. In my experience, local communities usually recognize some as judges, though they are rarely called such. Members of the community generally know who they can approach with matters requiring a Torah solution.

Sometimes they are leaders in the group, other times a teacher, or perhaps a member well trained in the Torah. If the community functioned as a whole, there would be set–apart judges, kohanim
(כהנים ) (priests) and Levites knowledgeable in the Torah and able to make righteous rulings. In many communities, the group consists of a few families and there may be no one who feels competent to make a judgment. It is a serious responsibility to act as a judge, but a necessary one.

The portion identifies the kohen (כהן) (priest) and Levite who minister in the name of YHVH as having the privilege and responsibility to receive tithes. What does it mean to minister or do something in the Name of YHVH?

A name is more than the spoken or written letter–combination that forms the name. A name represents who and what YHVH is. His Name is the sum total of His character, honesty, integrity, and characteristics.

When Moshe was on the Mount Sinai, YHVH said Moshe could not see His face, but he could see His back. As YHVH passed the place in which He had concealed Moshe, He called out what is known in Judaism as the thirteen attributes of YHVH:

“YHVH passed before him, and proclaimed, "YHVH, YHVH, Elohim, merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,
keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but Who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.”
(Exodus 34:6–7)

Who can come in YHVH's Name? Only those He sends, and those who are authorized to do so. An ambassador comes in the name of the ruling entity that sent him. A police officer comes in the name of the entity to which he is in contract. Only those who are in covenant with YHVH can come in His Name, as the kohanim and Levites whom YHVH called and said He was their inheritance and they were His.

A person may not take the name of another arbitrarily and come in their name; that is identity theft today, or impersonating someone. Without the authority to use another's name, it is a crime to do so.

Who is authorized to use the Name of YHVH? His prophets, the Levites, the kohanim, and Yeshua gave His disciples authority to act in His name. In Numbers 6:27 YHVH tells Aaron to bless the people and “Put My Name on them.” The apostle John said “But to all who received Him, who believed in His Name, He gave power to become children of Elohim; who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of Elohim.” (John 1:12–13)

Who today would be authorized to come in the Name of YHVH? Those who are in covenant with Him, have His Name placed on them through the blood of Yeshua, and through their obedience to the Torah are bnei Elohim (בן אלהים) – children of Elohim. If they are not obedient, they will fall under the charge of using His Name in vain.

If they claim to come in His Name and they are not living according to His instructions they are taking His Name and making it appear to mean nothing because others see their rebellion associated with His Name. Those who witness violation by someone claiming to come in His Name can only assume that YHVH condones such sin. If He did not condone the sin, He would remove them from their position of being sent.

But we see many who claim to be sent ones in His Name who are openly rebellious against His instructions and nothing happens to them. Why? The answer was in last week's Torah portion, the people are being tested to see if they will love YHVH with all their hearts, souls, and strength and keep His commandments in the face of a false prophet's teachings.

Each of us is responsible to determine whether a person coming in the Name of YHVH teaches and lives in obedience to the Torah. If not, we need to be cautious about listening to them. Perhaps you are hearing them as a test, to see whether you are going to follow their smooth sounding doctrine into following other gods, or will you obey YHVH, follow Him, and love Him with all your heart and all your soul.

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Re'eh (ראה) – Deuteronomy 11:26–16:17

by
Jon Thompson

“And when the YHVH your Elohim brings you into the land which you are entering to take possession of it, you shall set the blessing on Mount Ger'izim and the curse on Mount Ebal.”
(Deuteronomy 11:29)

In the Hebrew as well as the English translation, Moshe commands the people to write “the blessing” and “the curse” on the rocks as they entered Canaan, as opposed to “the blessings” and “the curses.” Why does he use the singular when he follows with a long list of blessings and curses?

Perhaps the use of the singular is one method YHVH uses to teach that there are two paths—obedience and disobedience. We are to understand foremost that obedience brings with it an attendant blessing, and disobedience brings cursing. What types of reward the blessing brings or discipline the curse results in is secondary to the knowledge that there is a consequence attached to each action.

This is similar to the experience at Mount Sinai where Israel covenanted “We will do and we will hear.” Before we knew what the requirement would be, we agreed to do whatever YHVH commanded us. Here He shows us that obedience brings blessing, and rebellion brings cursing before He tells us what the actual nature of the blessing and cursing entail.

In between the announcement in verse 29 above, and the listing of what the people could expect to happen depending on their actions, Moshe reiterates, “You shall be careful to do all the statutes and the ordinances which I set before you this day.” (Deuteronomy 11:32) Then Moshe lists out what YHVH expects them to do when they get into the land.

It is not an exhaustive list of all the commandments, but all the instructions he lists are designed to keep the people set apart, holy, from the gods, worship and diet of the current occupants of the land.

I want to point out two issues that Moshe highlights in his instructions.

Many people today disregard the laws of clean and unclean meats. But in our portion, 24 verses address the issues of not consuming blood, and explaining what animals are “food” and what animals are not food. We understand one way the Scriptures emphasize an issue is that more space in the text is devoted to it. The issue of what we put into our bodies appears to be important to YHVH.

When we understand that there is a Scriptural definition of what food is, Yeshua's conversation recorded in Matthew 15:1–20 and Mark 7:1–23 becomes clearer. Some translations have “Thus He declared all foods clean.” “Foods” does not include things that were never considered food as far as the Jews of Yeshua's time, or the Scriptures are concerned. YHVH never allowed His covenant people to eat things like pigs, hawks, shellfish, and bears. His people are supposed to be clean, set apart, holy, and are supposed to follow His instructions, including His dietary guidelines.

To use the exchange about the tradition of washing hands and pots to justify changing the Scriptures clear instructions on what should not be eaten is a good example of what Yeshua accused the Pharisees and Scribes of at the time, “Howbeit in vain do they worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of Elohim, ye hold the tradition of men . . .” (Mark 7:7-8)

The names have changed over the centuries as the church institution has evolved from Pharisees and Scribes to priests and pastors, but the methodology has remained the same. They still substitute the commandments of men as replacements for the commandment of YHVH.

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Eikev (עקב) – Deuteronomy 7:12–11:25

by
Jon Thompson

It's interesting that the title of this portion is taken from “if.” The word eikev (עקב) means literally “heel.” It is the root of Jacob's name, “Ya'akov” (יעקב), which means “heel grabber.” The sense of eikev is, that which is the result of something else; so, the King James Version of the Scriptures translates it as “if.”

Moshe relates to the children of Israel, if they will hear, obey, guard and do the judgments YHVH gave them, then, they will be blessed. He lists some of the blessings they can expect from their obedience. He then gives them a caution about what to do:

“If thou shalt say in thine heart, these nations are more than I; how can I dispossess them?
Thou shalt not be afraid of them: but shalt well remember what YHVH thy Elohim did unto Pharaoh, and unto all Egypt;”
(Deuteronomy 7:17, 18)

He cautions against having the same fear their fathers had the first time they stood at the edge of the land promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob when they said:

“Nevertheless the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great: and moreover we saw the children of Anak there.
The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south: and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites, dwell in the mountains: and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and by the coast of Jordan.” (Numbers 13:28, 29)

The fear kept them out of the Promised Land and caused them to wander the wilderness for the last 39 years. He didn't want this generation to make the same mistake. The strength and size of the cities and the people were still formidable, but Moshe told them that instead of looking at the opposition they should look to YHVH Who had already proved Himself as their Protector.

We need to be reminded of the same caution today. As we look at the size of the opposition, we may be awed. Israel is surrounded, and outnumbered by her foes. She stands alone against a host of enemies numbering in the hundreds of millions. Her military is excellent, the soldiers who defend Israel are trained, valiant and dedicated. Even with the skills and technology at her disposal, Israel will be hard pressed to survive an all out attack by the combined forces of those who want her destroyed.

Israel's hope is in YHVH.

Just as it was at the time of our portion, so it is today. Israel possesses only a small portion of the land promised to her. All of the contested land in the Middle East is Israel's by a land grant from YHVH. But the grant was conditional, “if” they would keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments—keep the Torah.

Each of us who have come into covenant with YHVH through Yeshua HaMashiach have been grafted in to the rich root of the olive tree—Israel. The promises to the children of Israel are made to us. The conditions placed on Israel are also placed on us. If we are in covenant with YHVH by adoption, or grafting in, then we have the Torah as our guide to a life of holiness.

Each of us must choose whether to accept the terms of our covenant and live according to the Torah, or to turn away from the instructions YHVVH gave His people and live in rebellion against Him. It is sad that so many today who desire to know YHVH are led astray into rebelling against the instructions He gave His people. What is worse is that they are told rebellion against His Word is “freedom,” but it is the same freedom the serpent offered Eve—the freedom from righteousness—sin.

What we need to realize is that if we sin against YHVH's Torah, then we are servants to sin. The path laid out by Yeshua is the way of righteousness that leads to freedom from sin. Be a servant of righteousness. By obeying the Torah, we accept the commandment to—“Be holy, for I am holy.” We also work out our salvation—the gift of eternal life:

“The wages of sin is death, but the gift of YHVH is eternal life through our Yeshua HaMashiach.” (Romans 6:23)

Yeshua is our redemption; He is also our perfect example of living the Torah without sin. When we accept His gift, we also accept the responsibility to live by His instructions. We can either, love Him and keep His commandments, or, we can trample His blood under our feet and continue in our violation of the Torah—sin. Here's a hint—choose life and obedience.

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V'Et'chanan (ואתחנן) – Deuteronomy 3:23–7:11

by
Jon Thompson

“But you who held fast to YHVH your Elohim are alive today, every one of you.” (Deuteronomy 4:4)

Moshe encouraged the people to follow the commandments, statutes and judgments that YHVH gave them. He pointed out that those who went after Peor (Baal) died, and only those who remained faithful to YHWH still lived. The statutes Moshe passed on to Israel were unique in the ancient world and differentiated them from surrounding nations.

Moshe told Israel, if they kept the statutes of YHVH, the other nations would look at them and say: “What a wise and understanding people.” (Deuteronomy 4:6) He explained that the statutes and judgments were righteous, upright, and just. It is essential for a nation to have just statutes if it is to survive.

Alexis de Tocqueville (a French political-thinker and historian) toured America in the 1800's, and concluded that the nation was so successful not because of its vast natural resources but because of its churches. He said: “America is great because it is good, if it ceases to be good, it will cease to be great.” That's the same idea Moshe was trying to convey to Israel. As long as a people follow the Torah of YHVH, they are blessed, and they prosper. When they stray, or rush headlong, away from His statutes, they open themselves up to His discipline.

Moshe warned them:

“Only, be on guard for yourself and keep your soul carefully, that you do not forget the things which your eyes have seen; and that they not depart from your heart all the days of your life. And you shall make them known to your sons, and to your sons' sons.” (Deuteronomy 4:9 LITV)

Be on guard. Don't let these statutes be polluted by adding to them or diminishing anything from them. When we think “we have a better idea.” or we say, “if this is what it says, then how about this . . .”, then we erect fences that seem good, and they may be, but just because it is a good idea, we should be careful not to confuse our ideas with the statutes of YHVH.

We can adopt a practice that is in line with Torah and helps us remember and do what YHVH asks, but we should be careful not to confuse our practice, which may be good today and altered tomorrow out of need or expediency, with Torah, which doesn't change to fit the times. We need to “Keep (our) soul carefully that (we) do not forget all the things” that our ancestors saw.

Just as we are commanded in the Shema, (Deuteronomy 6:4–9) Moshe encourages Israel to “Make them known to your sons and to your sons' sons.” It is vital that we pass on the knowledge of what YHVH has done for our Biblical ancestors. By hearing that He is faithful and mighty, our children gain trust and faith in YHVH. There are enough voices in the world telling them there is no Holy One. We as parents need to be the voice of Truth telling them who He is and what He has done.

The Brit Chadashah (New Testament) writers tell us to meet together and share what YHVH is doing in our lives today, and to encourage each other by sharing what the Scriptures say He will do in the future. By doing so we complete the cycle of the power of YHVH—“Who was, Who is, and Who is to come.”

As we approach the end of the age we will see an acceleration of the work of YHVH and the work of the enemy. Now more than ever before it is life to cleave to YHVH and His Word. We who accept His Word need to guard it as the enemy seeks to devalue it and eliminate it. We are also charged with the responsibility to share His Word with our children, and whoever else is willing to listen. Much as it was at Mount Sinai, the line is being drawn and the question asked: “Who is for YHVH, let him come . . . ” (Exodus 32:26)

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“Behold, the days are coming, says YHVH,
when I will make a new covenant
with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah
. . . I will put My law in their minds,
and write it on their hearts;
and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”
Jeremiah 31:31,33b