Torah Pearls – Re’eh – Deuteronomy 11:26-16:17 – Nehemia Gordon & Keith Johnson
Can one worship the true God without adhering to His commandments? What of the altars other than the altar? Who exactly were the corrupt men of “beliya’al”? Where is the son of God mentioned in the Old Testament? What kind of birds are the Ra’ah & the Da’ah? How can we possibly understand the deep & complex riddle, “Do not boil a kid in its mother’s milk”? Are there three tithes or only one? When did the Israelites leave Egypt, by day or by night?
Karaite Korner – Shaving and Sidelocks? The Real Meaning of Leviticus 19:27-28
are little angel statues idols? It’s my mothers so I don’t have the authority to destroy it but it creeps me out.
I have been so blessed by you three discussing the Scriptures! I’ve listened over and over again to all of the Torah Pearls posted here for months now, trying to soak it all in and study along with you. My life has been truly changed by the insights I’ve been learning. Thank you so much! I hope you guys can either continue through the rest of the Tanakh or go back through the Torah again after you come to the end of Deuteronomy! May Yehovah bless you!
I just want to say as i listened to Keith’s story and at the end heard that they won the game after he did pray to our Heavenly Father, Yehovah, why in the world did he NOT think that was a direct answer? i believe it was, give Yehovah praise … HALLELUYAH!!
luv ya Keith 🙂
you guys are wonderful, thank you so much!!
We are those ‘living’ stones that when someone is worshiping other gods must ‘throw’ our stones of ‘righteous judgment’ to those inside the camp. We are not to judge those outside the camp the same way (1Cor5:12). We must speak the Truth which is sometimes ‘tough love’ to those who are committing idolatry or adultery etc. Praise Yehovah for his righteous judgment! He does not turn a deaf ear nor look away from sin but righteously judges it. Love and compassion will cause us to speak righteous judgment (throw stones) to others also because we speak the words of our Father.
Love your show!
I am from Shillong, India.
Baruch ata Yehovah…. Bless you guys and thanks for the teaching and always be the light to the world for many people who are in darkness will get the light from you all Keith, Nehemia and Jono and many others in Torah. Thank you very much its a life changing and bless you all.
Maybe Eliyah was told to go to Mount Carmel and not the Temple Mount because human sacrifices are prohibited at the Temple Mount. I am trying to remember if YHWH took a life at the Temple site before or after Eliyah’s time. Jim
G-day Fellows
The Commander of the Lord YHVH’s Army
Who is the Commander of YEHOVAH’S army?
Thank you…
13 When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us, or for our adversaries?” 14 And he said, “No; but I am the commander of the army of the YHVH. Now I have come.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, “What does my lord say to his servant?” 15 And the commander of the Lord’s army said to Joshua, “Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.
Shalom…
“your dispersed were in the uttermost part of the heaven”
Wikipedia lists 14 Jewish astronauts!
I would just like to add a few things that had come to my mind when the discussion came about as to when Israel left Egypt from Chapter 16:1″…brought you out of Egypt by night”or in the morning.
While they were ready to go during the Passover meal, wouldn’t they have needed time to pack up and borrow from the Egyptians (as we are told they emptied out Egypt). So, I agree with Nehemia that the above verse near the end could belong to the beginning of the verse about keeping the Passover “by night”. It seems likely they would have left in the morning.
I love Torah Pearls-it keeps you thinking how other verses are linked to each other.
I’m wondering about the ger who can eat the animal that the native-born israelite cannot. Is it possible that the ger in this situation is simply a sojourner, not one who has necessarily joined himself to Israel & YHVH yet? Seeing how a ger who does want to serve YHVH is considered just like a native-born Israelite, this makes me think we’re looking at a ger of a different status in this situation.
I know it’s not a matter of popular opinion, but I agree wholeheartedly with Nehemia’s view that there is only one tithe that is used differently from year to year. Thank you for confirming that view, but I understand that there will be many who disagree.
There was a time when I sat down to read the Gospels to learn what Rav Yeshua expected of me for I wanted to follow Him with all my heart. I struggled along until I came to Matthew 6:22-23 “The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!” After re-reading this several times I finally stood up, lifted the book so that the pages faced towards Heaven, pointed to this passage and cried out to the Almighty, “If You do not want us to understand this please take it out. It is just too hard.” A few weeks later I heard a teaching that explained that the expressions a good eye and an evil eye were/are Hebrew idioms. A good eye means a generous person and an evil eye mean a stingy old miser. The verse now could be read, “If you are a generous person your whole body shall be full of light. But, if you are a tightwad your whole body shall be full of darkness.” When I heard that I lifted my eyes toward Heaven and said, “Thank you, Father.”
Regarding Devarim 15:7-10 please ask Nehemia to expound on Hillel’s prozbul (פרוזבול).
Growing up surrounded by my Chinese speaking parents and relatives I stand by my assessment that Nehemia speaks great Chinese with the accent and drawl 🙂
I’m also thankful Nehemia pointed out that in this current world we are not to stone our non-Torah observant relatives for inadvertently offering us pork or shrimp. Kinda reminds me of what Keith’s Rabbi taught about loving one another.
I have observed many valuable relationships sadly jeopardized because of misguided over zealousness upon discovering knowledge in the Torah.
And until Messiah comes and clarifies the Words of Yehovah we perceive as anomalies in the Scriptures we continue to hear Torah and keep loving one another the best we can.
Hello brothers! I LOVE THE SHOW! have listened from the beginging and it has been a HUGE help in my studies! Praise YeHoVaH! I just wanted to comment on the part in Deuteronomy 14:21. when it said, “Do not eat whatever dies of itself. Give it to the stranger who is within your gates, to eat it, or sell it to a foreigner. For you are a set-apart people to יהוה(YeHoVaH) your Elohim.
what I wanted to was that, this could be referring to only the clean animals, thus making it appropriate for a stranger or foreigner to eat. and making the verse true to what it says.
Now, if only it clarified “clean” or “unclean” would be nice. But is it safe to say that it would have to be referring to clean animals only, because I think that is the conviction/question that enters the mind when reading this verse?
Thanks Guys for all your hard work,
May YeHoVaH bless you and protect you;
May YeHoVaH shine His face upon you and be gracious to you; YeHoVaH lift His face up towards you, and give you peace.” Amein.
Nehemia brings up how Yehovah told Elijah to go make sacrifices on Mount Carmel which was not the prescribed place for making sacrifices, Keith made such a great point when he said, “I don’t see the problem, Yehovah can do whatever He wants whenever He wants.” Start at 42:48 or even 40:40 on the recording to get context. Then Nehemia says “I don’t disagree with you but Yehovah did say He choses a place forever.” then goes onto explain how what was happening then was the reason Yehovah made that exception in the law. Then at 44:18 Nehemia says “but it does raise the question, how is this to be explained and Jono says “how is it to be understood”… I’m going with Yehovah is sovereign and all His ways are righteous and we don’t have to fully understand everything He does even while in our tiny little minds it looks like He is breaking His own law. I think it’s a good idea to always keep in mind who He is and who we are before we ask certain questions of Him. Let me refer you to Job
The next law Nehemia discusses that Yehovah makes an exception for is mentioned in the line in Deut 12:15 where Yehovah says “the unclean and the clean may eat thereof” (start at 47:00 on the recording) Nehemia is talking about the Laws in Leviticus 17 and says Deut 12:15&16 says that rule didn’t apply in the desert. Nehemia goes on to say “the clean and the unclean, now that doesn’t mean you’re eating an unclean animal, it means the person who is eating it is unclean” Nehemia is right about the interpretation of that line, it is referring to people who were ceremonially clean or unclean. Again Yehovah made an exception to a law because of the situation. The part Nehemia didn’t discuss is the line in Deut 12:15 where Yehovah said, “whatsoever thy soul lusteth after”. That is the KJV which is the best and most literal translation of the Hebrew. the Hebrew word ‘av vah is the word for lust which means; desire, lust, will (not necessarily evil). To make it clear Yehovah says this two more times, once in verse 20 and again in verse 21, “whatsoever thy soul lusteth after”. Then to clarify even further that they could eat any kind of meat they wanted to, Yehovah says in verse 22, “Even as the roebuck and the hart is eaten, so thou shalt eat them”. In the context of these verses, “them” is referring to whatever kind of animal they desired to eat, not the roebuck and the hart. Not only did Yehovah change the law to allow a ceremonially unclean person to eat, but be also changed the law to allow them to eat unclean meat while they were in the desert.
What bothers me here is that it really looks like you did a Rabbinical Word Dance (Eisegesis) on this set of verses in order to make it say what you wanted it to. More importantly, you are teaching it as the word of Yehovah and you subtracted from His word.
Yehovah established His first food law in Genesis 1:29. He gave them plants and fruit to eat but no animals. Hundreds of years later, after the flood, in Genesis 9:3 He gave them every moving thing to eat. It wasn’t until hundreds of years after the flood that he gave them the exact diet to follow in Leviticus 11 where He gave them specific things to eat and not eat. As you examine the situation further in Deuteronomy 12 it becomes apparent that there were not enough sacrificial animals for them to eat as frequently as they needed to. They were starving so Yehovah allowed them to eat whatever they could find.
The verses of Deuteronomy 12:15-22 gives great credence to the idea that Peter’s vision was a dual revelation from Yehovah. Simply imagine what the implications are in the situation. Yehovah was telling Peter that salvation was for the Gentiles too. They were to share the Gospel to all the world. Clean animals were not always available for food everywhere, so Yehovah blessed all animals to be eaten. Of course Yehovah could have miraculously supplied clean animals all over the world, but that is not how He decided to handle the situation. There are three periods where Yehovah allowed us to eat what Leviticus 11 calls unclean meat. The first time is after the flood, the second time is while they were in the desert and the third is from the time of Peter’s vision on. Yehovah can do whatever He wants whenever He wants.
Jono, you have been in the land and seen the places, right? Jericho is such a tiny place that it seems odd that 600,000 warriors would be scared.
I see that number differently since we know that Joseph was counted in as well. Certainly, his bones didn’t join the actual fighting, right?
I would therefore conclude that Moses counted everyone in the lineage as being with them, even so many died in Egypt, i.e. many sons ended up in the river Nile. In this way, all Israel left Egypt and nobody left behind. Of course, that means not several millions marched and not an army of over 600,000 men ready for battle. Kind like Gideon’s army – all were with him but just a much smaller number did the actual fighting.
Just my thoughts on it.
Besides that, I really enjoy and listen year after year to the Torah portions.
Shalom rav
The Golden Plates..
I belive that Joseph Smith actually taught about the true nature of Yeshua and Yehovah but latter prophets of the LDS Church are fake