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Lessons From The Holy Ark

Parashat Terumah (Exodus 25:1-27:19)

This week’s Torah portion begins with a request from Hashem for materials to use in the construction of the Mishkan, the Holy Tabernacle. It continues with detailed instructions for how the Tabernacle and its furnishings should be made. One of these furnishings was central to the Tabernacle. It was the Aron, the Holy Ark, about which Hashem instructed Moses, “You shall put into the ark the testimony that I shall give you” (Exodus 25:16). He gave Moses specific instructions for making the Ark, saying:

They shall make an ark of acacia wood. Two cubits and a half shall be its length, a cubit and a half its breadth, and a cubit and a half its height. You shall overlay it with pure gold, inside and outside shall you overlay it, and you shall make on it a molding of gold around it. (Exodus 25:10–11)

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Are Gentiles Really Dogs?

Parashat Mishpatim (Exodus 21:1-24:18)

Both the Gospels of Matthew and Mark record Yeshua’s encounter with a Gentile woman who had come to him begging that he exorcise a demon from her daughter. With our modern, egalitarian perception of Yeshua we would think that he would immediately have compassion on this unfortunate girl and agree to help. However, the Gospels record for us what may be the Master’s most shocking response to our Western ears. He told the woman, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs” (Matthew 15:26).

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An Eye For An Eye

I was recently asked a sincere question about the relationship of Yeshua to the Torah. Yeshua’s words in Matthew 5 seem to advocate changing the Torah’s principle of “eye for eye” with grace and mercy. The question was as follows:

God gave the people laws to obey, as recorded in Exodus 21 ("these are the laws you are to set before them..." v. 1) through 23. Among them is "an eye for an eye, tooth for tooth" (v. 24). Yeshua said "you have heard they were told 'an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.' But what I tell you is this: do not resist those who wrong you..." (Mt. 5:38-42). If we are required to be fully Torah observant, and Yeshua was simply establishing a way for us to do so in practice but without making any actual change to the laws Moses communicated, then how could Yeshua establish a new law of mercy in their place as he told his followers here?

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A Pentecostal Experience

Parshat Yitro

(Exodus 18:1-20:23)

We are all familiar with what took place in Acts 2. After Yeshua’s resurrection he instructed his disciples to remain in Jerusalem so that they would be filled with the Ruach HaKodesh, the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:4–8). Here’s the account of how it happened:

When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. (Acts 2:1–4)

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Bread From Heaven

Parashat Beshalach

(Exodus 13:17-17:16)

What is it? This is what the Children of Israel asked when they saw the manna when it first appeared in the wilderness. Before it appeared they had been grumbling against Moses and Aaron because their bellies craved more than what they had at the time. They were so dissatisfied that they spoke about their time of slavery in Egypt as if it brought back nostalgic memories for them saying, “We sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full” (Exodus 16:3). Hashem heard their grumbling and told them He was going to put an end to it. He would give them quail in the evenings and manna in the mornings. They would have no more reason to complain.

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Guarding the Matzah

Parashat Bo

Exodus 10:1-13:16

In Parashat Bo we learn about the final three plagues with the culmination being the death of the firstborn. This is the final act of God that released the Children of Israel from the grip of Egyptian slavery. But right before this final plague is poured out, the Children of Israel are given instructions for the Passover Lamb and all that went with it. They were to take a male lamb without blemish on the tenth day of the month and keep it until the fourteenth day when they would slaughter it. They would then smear some of its blood upon the doorframes of their houses so that the firstborn of the Israelites would not face the same fate as that of the Egyptians.

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