Torah 101-Ki-Tavo Portion I.

ANSWERS TO LAST WEEKS STUDY QUESTIONS (from KiTeze)

Torah 101 Questions and Answers 1) Question for Deuteronomy 21:10-22:30: Although tzit-tzit are mentioned directly elsewhere, there is one command that sheds light on whether women are allowed to wear them or not without mentioning them. Where is that command? KELI GEVER AL ISHAH (22:5) = article of a man/warrior upon a woman. This word means far more than just the prohibition of a woman not putting on mans clothing. Many rabbis would argue the plain meaning of the word would include things like weapons. The word GEVER can denote warrior and not just male which might add strength to this argument. From this standpoint the rabbis derive the articles of men would include the prohibition of women not wearing tzit-tzit. Others point out that the phrase sons of Israel which is given with this command could include the women as well. I personally find neither a strong commandment for women to either wear tziti-tzit or a prohibition against them doing so should they wish to. Furthermore, the rabbinic argument is circular in nature, in that it already makes an a priori assumption that tzit-tzit are mens clothing, and yet that is what is yet to be proven, so you cant use this verse to prove the assertion from Numbers 15, when the original command is given to the children of Israel. 2) Wildcardcould be from any part of the Torah Portion: How does the Torah requirement regarding the punishment of adultery square with the NT depictions of how said act is punished? VEHOTSETEM ET-SHNEYHEM EL-SHAAR HAIR HAHI USKALTEM OTAM BAAVANIM VAMETU ET-HA-NAARA AL-DEVAR ASHER LO-TSAAKAH VAIR VEET HA-ISH AL-DEVAR ASHER INAH ET-ESHET RE-EHU UVIARTA HARA MIKIRBECHA (22:24) = Both of them shall be brought to the gates of the city and shall be put to death by stoning, for the girl, because she did not cry out and on the man, because he violated his neighbors wife. You will rid yourselves of this evil. We see at least two violations of the Torah procedure in John 7:53-8:11, which is one of many reasons why the passage is left out of the 4 earliest Greek versions of John and all of the Aramaic witnesses of this section as well. First, the man and the woman should have been brought to Yshua for judgment, but only the woman is brought. Second, the entourage bringing the woman should have substantiated that the woman did not cry out, and instead they expect her to be killed solely on their 1|Page

opinion that adultery happened. No witness testimony is given to Yshua for him to judge, beyond the general charge, and details are required. Finally, the next line, 22:25, shows that there are cases where, if anything, only the MAN should be put to death and charged and the woman is blameless. 3) Question for Deuteronomy 24:1-25:19: Is Abba YHWH contradicting Himself when He says on the one hand that He punishes the sins of the fathers on to the children up to the fourth generation and on the other hand when He says here that fathers cannot die for their sons sins and vice versa? Why or why not? LO YUMTU AVOT AL-BANIM UVANIM LO-YUMTU AL-AVOT ISH BECHETO YUMATU (24:12) = Fathers should not be put to death for their children nor should children be put to death for their fathers but each man will die in their own sin. I got an interesting question about this passage this week Question Why does it seem like YHWH is contradicting Himself when He says on one hand in 2 Kings 14: 5-6: "Fathers are not to be executed for the children, nor are children to be executed for the fathers; every person will be executed for his own sin. And then in places like Exodus 20:4-6 and Exodus 34:6-8 and Numbers 14: 18 are we told the opposite...that He DOES punish the children for the sin of the parents? For your convenience, here are the above scriptures, so you don't have to look them up: 2 Kings 14: 5 As soon as he had the kingdom firmly under his control, he put to death the servants of his who had murdered the king his father. 6 But he did not put the children of the murderers to death, because of what is written in the scroll of the Torah of Moshe, as ADONAI ordered when he said, "Fathers are not to be executed for the children, nor are children to be executed for the fathers; every person will be executed for his own sin. If that was written in the Torah that each will be executed for his own sin then why: Exodus 20:4-6 4 You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments. Exodus 34:6-8 6 And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, 7 maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he 2|Page

punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation. Numbers 14: 18 The Lord is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation. And here was my answer Shalom--first of all, it doesn't say YHWH KILLS children to the 4th generation for the sins of their parents but it says YHWH PUNISHES up to the 4th generation. This is because the punishment of the parents affects the children, so if the parent is exiled so is the child and parents are punished through knowing what they do will negatively impact their children but no one dies for another's sin. 4) Haftorah Question of the Week: Isaiah 54:1-10 In Isaiah 54:8 there is one word which, when combined with another word in 54:9, points to the identity of two well-known Biblical figures. What are the words and who are the persons that they are pointing to? 54:8 has the word GAAL, which means a redeemer who buys back their kin from servitude or marriage. 54:9 has the word ABAR, to cross over, from where HEBREW comes from. Together the phrase spells out or at least suggests Hebrew redeemer. Depending on your point of view this could be an apt description for either Boaz or Yshua or both of them.

II.

QUESTIONS FOR THIS TORAH PORTION (Ki-Tavo) Please NOTE:

For clarity and time constraints, if I elect to not read the whole parsha (which is the case this week) I may still ask questions relating to the portions I did not read! 5) Question for Deuteronomy 26: In this chapter the word SHMAYIM or heaven is mentioned. While no one is 100% sure of the full meaning of this word, the possibilities around it are both interesting and unexpected. What are some of those surprising meanings? 6) Question for Deuteronomy 27: We all know by now that Moshe prophesied about Yshua in Deuteronomy 18 (compare with Yochanan 5:45-47). However, in this chapter Moshe also prophesied 3|Page

about one of Yshuas discipleswho is he and where did Moshe prophesy about him? 7) Question for Deuteronomy 28:1-29:8: What detail about the role of evil in this portion seems at odds with other descriptions of evil but really isnt? 8) Haftorah Question of the Week: Isaiah 60:1-22 Where did we encounter the family line of Islams founder this week? 9) Renewed Covenant Commentary: Matthew 13:1-23 Matthew 13:2 Both traditional Jewish and Christian folklore teaches that very few Jews accepted Yshua as Mashiyach, which is an absolute falsehood. Both Scriptural and historical records indicate that multitudes of Jews favored Yshuas message and what he offered, over the traditional religions of the day. A survey of Jews in America in the 1990s showed that 1 in 6 Jews believed Jesus to either be the Mashiyach or a good Jew who embarrassed the establishment. Matthew 13:11 Mystery of the Kingdom of Heaven is the spiritual nature of Mashiyach revealed throughout the Tanakh and NT, it relates to the spiritual man more than a consciousness of knowing about Heaven or salvation. In Proverbs it is revealed; For the obstinate are an abomination to YHWH: but His secret (sod) is with the righteous (Pro_3:32), the secret is the power of spiritual life within the Kingdom of Heaven. Have you heard the mystery (sod) of Elohim? (Job_15:8) The mystery of Elohim denotes the nature of Mashiyach and righteousness within the inner man. Surely Elohim YHWH will do nothing, but that He reveals His secret (sod) to His servants the prophets (Amo_3:7); YHWH reveals future events from the spiritual to natural worlds with those who pursue righteousness. The mystery unfolds when one realizes that; I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create calamity: I YHWH do all these things (Isa_45:7). The word sod is also repeatedly used by Paul through its Aramaic synonym and cognate araza (e.g. 1Co_15:51). It is the highest level of interpretation of Scripture (PaRDeS). The word pardes literally means paradise or orchard; the latter harking back to the primordial Garden of Eden. But it also is an acrostic, meaning this word is derived from the first letters of each word in a phrase. In this case PRDS comes from pshat (plain meanings of Scripture), remez (hints of deeper meanings in words of a scriptural passage), drash (comparisons of places in Scripture where the

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word/concept is used) and, of course, sod. The idea is that if you can find and enter (apply) all the levels of meaning in Scripture you can attain Paradise. The believer understands that cerebral knowledge is nothing without applied faith as manifested through obedience and good works. By entering into Mashiyach and observing Torah the new spiritual man differentiates the things of the Kingdom of Heaven from the religious masks that obscure the hidden spirituality of Mashiyach. Most importantly however is the absolute command that these steps be taken one at a time and in their proper order. If we skip a step or downplay intermediate steps in our studies, the end result will be confusion and error. This is why the Rabbis limited the study of the mystical traditions to those 40 years old and older, and even then, they were required to have special rabbinic training from a very young age to qualify. Such also explains this warning from the Jewish historian Philo (ca. 20 BCE to 50 CE) who wrote: The sacred and mystic statements about the one uncreated Being, and about his powers, ought to be kept secret; since it does not belong to everyone to keep the deposit of divine mysteries properly.(Sacrifices of Abel and Cain, 1:60C.D. Yonge translation). Please see footnotes Rom_12:2; Rom_16:24, 1Co_2:14, Col_2:2; Col_4:12.

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