Torah Pearls #26 – Shemini (Leviticus 9:1-11:47)

I have a slightly different context of the unclean animals. I thought for years that the unclean was a Jewish requirement and I’m in a different culture. However, I love medicine and read articles on medical research. I ran across a research paper maybe 25 years ago that showed that the body produces the same antibodies when you eat pig products as it does when you have cancer. From that day I haven’t even eaten bacon with breakfast (which is full of chemicals anyway) then I realized that the things like lobster, crab and shrimp and catfish and an under of other fish are scavengers, many bottom feeders, and as such accumulate a lot of toxins. I have since gained a much different respect for God’s wisdom in which foods are clean and not clean. Oh, and then there’s that thing about being Holy as He is Holy. Unrelated question. There was a mention of the translation Nehemia prefers. Can you give me what that translation is?

Christianity is no more false (or true) than Judaism. The true faith in the Bible is called “the Way of YHVH.” It isn’t made burdensome or difficult by the oral laws of the rabbis not does it throw out His Instructions altogether as the Gentile-based religions do.

Christianity, is false and therefore heathen and we not to learn their ways. So why do u quote them????

Yes.

peter is a heathen so therefore false.

ShalomShalom…💯

I so appreciate these Torah Pearls! Yehovah always opens my eyes and ears to glean something for me, feeding me with that food from His hand that is convenient for me. This week, I especially appreciated the conversation about that which we SAY we are doing for Yehovah’s glory, that is really for our own glory. Whew! What truth!!! Our Father has me in a circumstance in which I am being given the opportunity to let the glory go to HIM instead of myself, whereas in the past, I sought it out for myself (albeit unknowingly until He shined His light on my motives). Thank you to all three of you for these Torah Pearls. Although they were recorded years ago, the truths you expound upon will never grow old, because Truth is progressive – and Father Yehovah can always cause any of us to glean something for our lives specifically; a pearl within a pearl, as it were. Many blessings to you and your families!

Anita, I’m glad that you want to believe in Jesús, but this is not the place for trying to fill in Christian beliefs into the Torah.

You need to realise that when a Jew says « to fulfill » a mitzvah or commandment, it means « to *do* » a mitzvah or commandment. In that sense, every Jew fulfills all the moëdim every year and every mitzvah or commandment which they perform they fulfill.

This has nothing to do with the day when mashia’h will or will not come.

On a *funny* note : Jesús came by the other day and did a wonderful job on my garden. Yéhoshu‘a came by and got my loved one out of jail. Joshua came by and we partied like it was 1999.

In the hebrew, 11.29-38 is one closed section (parashah setoumah) if that helps you to understand it a bit better. That paragraphe is about what happens when one of the 8 tamé creepy-crawlies (the « Sheretz haShoretz » and their species) or a piece of said creepies falls onto food or into a food/drink container or utensil.

In the hebrew 11.39-47 is a different closed section (parashah setoumah) dealing with the touching of a carcass of a kosher or non-kosher animal all the way down to the creepies.

Remember, as far as taméa and tahora are concerned, they are states of being which prohibit or allow entrance into the Temple.
Kashrut deals with « the living being that may be eaten and that which you shall not eat ».

This section does not treat eating out in restaurants (which becomes more a question of 1, meat which comes from a kosher animal or not ; as well as 2, meat slaughtered in a kosher manner [so as to remove the most amount of blood from the blood vessels] ; as well as 3, meat prepared to eat in a kosher manner [including removing the rest of the blood from the flesh]).

This *can* have an impact on the meat bought in a grocery store (which becomes a question of 1, meat slaughtered in a kosher manner [so as to remove the most blood from the blood vessels] ; as well as 2, meat prepared for cooking [by removing the rest of the blood from the flesh]).

As we Jews do, it will be up to you to decide after determining through prayer and study, where you will fall on the spectrum of stringency and leniency concerning the consumption of such animals, touching their carcasses and things « contaminated » through contact with the tamé carcasses.

I remember “dissecting” grasshoppers when I was young. If you find the ones full of eggs, you might get quite a bit of nutrition.
An American woman went to Australia while waiting to be picked up, she struck up a conversation with a local. He said “did you come hear to day?” She answers, “NO! I didn’t come here to die, just for a visit!”

That pic, it’s from Aaron’s Bible…one of the few pics of Incense Altar I cud find that was hollow, like the one in the Arch of Titus…well done, gentleman.

Ha! So here’s a funny thing!
Here I am, in Australia, painting my ‘Abba inspired art’ and listening to Torah Pearls (as you do!) but I’m wrestling with the fact that I’m painting a Hoopoe Bird in a Palm Tree, thinking why did I choose this subject and what meaning does it really hold.. when Nehemia says, “it’s the national bird of Israel!!” This I did not know! Amazing! So thank you Nehemia for my new found inspiration! And thanks to all of you for your show, for revealing wonderful things about the Torah and in a way that makes me smile!

that’s the mountain version I believe. LOL.

In Leviticus 11, God defines what is and is not food. Keeping His commandments are always a blessing. Thus, eating things NOT food will be bad for us and even create problems for mankind. We see this in some viruses.

Translators have ADDED words via a parenthetic in Mark 7:19 that are NOT in the inspired original text. This is translator opinion, and error, not part of Scripture. It also violates Deuteronomy 4:2 and 12:32.

Yeshua is only talking about FOOD here not unclean things that we are commanded not to eat.

To further make the point, in Acts 10, God uses unclean animals (not food) metaphorically. Peter focuses on the metaphors literally, anddoesn’t get it, but by verse 28, Peter has clarity of the real meaning of the vision, it is about associating with unclean people, not a new definition of food.

Yeshua explained what defiles in Mark 7 v 14-23.
You are not contaminate by food but by what comes from the heart – words and deeds – as further defined in v 1-13.
Ps 34 v 12-16 is also referred to in 1 Peter 3.
Thank you for amazing insights and stimulating thoughtful study and application.

is it anything like the elusive jackalope? lol

that would make sense to me, “dont eat vultures” NO PROBLEM … eat vegetarian birds? but what about birds that eat fish? i think as Nehemiah explained, fish are different from the land animals, so birds that eat fish would be okay, yeah?

Yehoshua fulfilled all four of the spring moedim TO THE DAY (dont forget about the four days of inspection!) and he will fulfill the spring moedim when he returns … and following the precedent, that would also mean TO THE DAY … I can’t wait for Shmini Atzeret!

just getting ready for the brimstone to hit the fan, that’s all. Michael Rood says they’re delicious

u are braver then I to eat one of those things. it says u may eat them, not that u have to. yuck.

No proof JC ever existed. deut.4:2

You guys skipped right past one of the sections I have a question about. The Scriptures version says in Ch 11: 34 Any of the food which might be eaten, on which water comes, becomes unclean, and any drink which might be drunk from it becomes unclean.35 And on whatever [any] of their carcass falls becomes unclean – an oven or cooking range – it is broken down. They are unclean, and are unclean to you. 36 But a fountain or a well, a collection of water, is clean, but whatever touches their carcass is unclean. 37 And when [any] of their carcasses falls on any planting seed which is to be sown, it is clean. 38 But when any water is put on the seed and any part of any such carcass falls on it, it is unclean to you.

As Jono says, what do you make of it??? Water makes food unclean?

It was interesting that you referred to the fact that there are no physical features that identify the birds that shouldn’t be eaten. I don’t know where I heard that it’s the birds that eat carrion or flesh that cannot be eaten. so there may be an identifier.

A hyrax is a small mammal also called a dassie in South Africa and there are hundreds of them on Table Mountain. (Sometime called a “rock rabbit”)

You must LOVE YHVH to keep his commands and vice versa. Many come to Torah and forget about the love that it is pointing us towards. The love of messiah. Love for our neigbor and Neigbor. love is the best and it is the answer to your question. How to follow? Love who you follow. Don’t lose Him.

During the discussion of chapter 10 where it mentions the death of Aaron’s sons, you fail to mention the version that adds understanding to what might have caused them to act impulsively,10: 8 ADONAI said to Aharon, 9 “Don’t’ drink any wine or other intoxicating liquor, neither you nor yours sons with you, when you enter the tent of meeting, so that you will not die.

Peter says to be holy in all your “conversation” – meaning your total lifestyle. Lust was mentioned… lusting for foods is a “thing: – not just lust in context of non-marital sex. I believe that Peter followed Torah all his days, to the best of his ability (i.e., not without sin.) As Yeshua directed, he dispensed with rabbinical additions to Torah, but I believe he never ate unkosher food.

Correction. There is nothing in the story (Genesis 32:24-32) that mentions “The One sent by YHVH”, the word YHVH is not even used.

just wanted to add one comment about 1 Pet 1:15…Peter seems to define what he means by “being holy” (in context); see 2:1, 11-12. 15-22; 4:1-3 (and Ch.3 in the context of marriage), and no where when reading this epistle do you get the sense that he is talking about food… Just wanting to be honest with the text. shalom

I would agree that from this text (regarding Manoah) and several others, the “Angel of YHVH” is not “just and angel” but a manifestation of YHVH Himself (which is why the people, upon realizing this, always fear for their lives). I do not think, however, one can make the assertion that this Angel is the (pre-incarnate) Yeshua (the LOGOS/dabar of YHVH), although that is certainly a possibility (but it is nowhere made clear in the text itself). Bottom line–Manoah DID “get it” 🙂 shalom

Manoah and his wife were there, we were not. Perhaps they had good reason to believe they had seen God just as Moses did on Sinai wherein the language is similar as well as Jacob when wrestling with “The One sent by YHVH” (poorly translated as “the angel of YHVH,” which makes us wrongly think of a cherub like Gabriel or Michael. This “angel” (malak) is not just any messenger or “one sent,” but THE One sent by YHVH, aka “The Anointed One.” The Anointed One is of course, the Messiah, or Yeshua, YHVH who saves (The Anointed One sent to save us in YHVH’s Name).

Grains, grasses, fruit trees are the closest to absorbing the minerals from the earth, animals that eat grains ect are next, life is in the blood, don’t eat pretators as you might develope a preditory nature. can eath the mean of the gentle animals, cows, goats, sheep, if blood is properly vacated. All in all Father knows best.

Also of the clean animals used for sacrifice; their blood vessel up their neck is so designed as to cut the blood off to the brian, quickly so doesn’t feel pain.

Swine was also used in all the pagan natons sacrifices.

It seems that generally unclean are those that are predictors, that run after their prey and tear it apart, also those that clean up the garbage of the water and earth the dead rotten material. Also concerning feet, some feet can get infection more than others, swine does not sweat and internalizes toxins. There is that prepared for ood and that prepared to clean up the dead, rotten stuff of earth or water.

Thankyou so much for your teaching. For Charing your wisdom.
But I am wondering about Vayikra 11:11, here they use a stronger word “detestabel” and also that it applise to their carcasses. Does this mean that I can not touch the Shell of the shrimp?

I was reading Judges 6 last night and noticed that Gideon offered a sacrifice to YHWH as a result of his encounter with the Angle of the LORD on his own. I really thought that only a priest was to perform that duty, if it were to be acceptable. The generations that grew up who did not know YHWH, (Judges 1) did they not have the Tabernacle or service in place in order to worship? How is it that YHWH allows alters and sacrifices outside of the Tabernacle and priestly order He established?
Just curious.

Indeed a very interesting conversation. All of Torah continues to tug atme with many questions.
Most important can anyone expound on how one can follow when so much of Prophet writings tell them and now us, those appointed went after other baal/gods???
After all, all have been born in sin, YHWH setup for us to obey Him alone!

Thanks for any response.

Thank you for the commentary how does KOSHER coming to this? now most people are talking about KOSHER but not clean and unclean. Do you have any article on Kosher? if you do can you send to me. YeHoVaH bless. Moses
moekwuabu@yahoo.com

Thank you for imparting wisdom and insight on what is, sadly, a new concept for me…following Torah. Concerning the teaching of Lev. 11, I was wondering if you could bring some clarification on verses 32-39. Is this speaking specifically of the swarming things or is it referring to all unclean animals? I’ve been told it applies to all unclean animals, but when I read it, it seems to me in context, it’s talking of the swarming things. How does this affect eating out in restaurants, or buying meats from the grocery stores? I’m confused, and welcome any insight you have on this topic. Thank you again.

Shalom

Paula Stein