Numbers 4:21-7:89 – Judges 13:2-25 – Acts 2:1-21

This week's edition of The Set Table contains:

Questions and Commentary on Shabbat Naso
Chayyei Yeshua - A Devotional Commentary on the Besora Reading
In Summary
Looking Ahead

Questions & Commentary on Parashat Naso

1. How do we understand the seemingly archaic and non-judicial procedure the Torah describes for the sota (suspected adulterous wife) in light of God's equity and impartiality? Where do we find the Messiah in this ritual?

Nick Amic

Scoffers and skeptics alike might read this week's Torah portion of the sota (Numbers 5:12-31) and be inclined to pronounce it inhumane and discriminatory. Upon a "plain" reading one is inclined to ask how the Torah could prescribe such a practice. Where is the justice for the accused woman? Where is her trial? Most pertinently, if the Torah speaks about Yeshua, as he claims it does (Luke 24:27), where is does he emerge in this ritual?

To begin with, the sages learn from Numbers 5:31 that only a husband free from illicit relationships is able to bring his wife to trial (b. Sota 28a, 47b). The sages further derive from Numbers 5:14 that this is not an isolated instance where the woman's husband is inflamed with a fit of jealous, as the Mishna points out:

The jealousy about which the Torah speaks...means that he tells her, before witnesses: Do not seclude yourself with so-and-so.

m. Sota 1:1

Further, it is the woman in this whole ordeal that has the choice to undergo the procedure or even divorce her accusing husband (b. Sota 27b; Rambam, Hilkhot Sota 2). Lastly, Nachmanides points out that the sota procedure is the only mitzva that requires the very God of Israel to stand as a witness for the woman, preempting any human judicial process.

The picture of the sota procedure (Numbers 5:19-22) sheds light on the odd reaction Moses undergoes in response to the sin of the golden calf (Exodus 32:19-20). Indeed, the sages point out a connection of the commandments against idolatry and adultery in the Ten Utterances. The Talmud relates that there were three groups of people involved in the calf incident: 1) those pre-warned, who intentionally committed idolatry in front of witnesses and received the death penalty (32:26-28); 2) those not warned but who intentionally committed idolatry, and were killed by plague (v. 35); and 3) the last group where no witnesses were involved, that underwent a test likened to the sota ritual (b. Yoma 66b). There is also one other very poignant parallel between the sota and the calf incident: the desecration of God name. In the case of the sota, the kohen includes the sacred name of God in the curses written for the ritual (Numbers 5:19-22), and then destroys it (v. 23). Likewise, Moses smashes the very Tablets of the Torah written by God (Exodus 32:19).

It is this last parallel-the desecration of God's name-between the two episodes that brings us to Yeshua. Yeshua is likened unto Moses, as Yeshua is the physical bearer of God's very words (John 1:14), intercedes on behalf of Israel directly to God (Romans 8:34, cf. Exodus 32:11-14); and in the same manner it is only those aligned with Moses that do not incur God's judgment (see Exodus 32:26ff) so to it is only those aligned with Yeshua who continue in God's covenant (Hebrews 8:6-13). In both the sota ritual and the calf incident, God's very name is destroyed in order to restore familial relationship-both between husband and wife and God and Israel respectively. Yeshua, however becomes that very Name of God which is destroyed on our behalf in order to eternally uphold the sanctity of union between Israel and those who align themselves with her, now that's true shalom bayit!

2. In Parashat Naso' we hear of God's command to the priests to offer a blessing over the people (Numbers 6:22-27). In these verses, the verb for blessing (barakh) appears first with reference to the priests and then with reference to God. What does the character of the priestly benediction teach us about the types of blessing? What spiritual lesson can we learn?

Rabbi Jonathan Kaplan

In the midst of Parashat Naso', God commands Aaron and his descendents to offer the following blessing over the people of Israel.

   May the LORD bless you and keep you.

   May the LORD deal kindly and graciously with you.

   May the LORD bestow favor upon you and grant you peace.

            Numbers 6:24-26

In verse 23, Israel is to offer the blessing. In verse 24, God is supposed to bestow the blessing. Who bestows the blessing? Israel or God? In seeking to offer an answer to this question, the 15th century Spanish commentator, Abarbanel offers an insightful statement about the types of blessing:

"Blessing" is a homonym referring both to the good emanating from God to his creatures, as in "And the LORD blessed Abraham with all" (Genesis 24) and the blessing proceeding from humans to God above in the sense of praise, as in "And David blessed the LORD (1 Chronicles 29). Then there is the blessing given by one person to another which is neither to be compared to the abundance of grace emanating from God nor to the praise proceeding from his creatures, but rather constitutes a supplication by the author calling on God to bless the person concerned. Into this category falls the priestly blessing . . . They merely invoke the divine blessing on Israel.

Nehama Leibowitz, Studies in Numbers, 63.

Here Abarbanel follows Rashbam and others in arguing that the priests invoked divine blessing upon Israel. They are the agents of divine blessing. Abarbanel's comments, however, provide us with an interesting perspective on the nature of blessing. For Abarbanel, blessing operates in three ways. First, God's bestows blessings on creation. Second, humanity blesses God through praise. Third, humans invoke God's blessing on others.

We participate, thus, in blessing in three ways: as receivers, bestowers, and invokers. Thinking about blessing in these three ways reminds us that we cannot spend our life only playing one or two of these roles. The importance of this can be seen in Kefa's comments in his first epistle where he exhorts his readers to "repay evil [or] . . . insult . . . with blessing because to this you were called so that you might inherit a blessing" (1 Peter 3:9). Throughout our life we will be called to act in each of these three ways - sometimes receiving blessing, other times blessing God, and other times invoking God's blessing on others. This is life as a member of God's people.

Julie David

Acts 2:1-21 - The Obedient Israel
 

How many times have we read in the Tanakh that Israel is supposed to be a light to the nations? How many times have you heard sermons that exemplify what Israel did not do to be a light to the nations but instead was disobedient to God?

In Acts 2, we see an amazing, revolutionary occurrence. The Ruach HaKodesh actually came down to the believers and they began to speak in tongues. "Suddenly, a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting . . . All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them," (Acts 2:2, 4). The god-fearing Jews who were in Jerusalem came together to listen, totally confused, because they were from different parts of the world yet heard these believers in their own native language.

To explain away the theory that these men were acting out their drunkenness, Peter stood up and told his fellow Jews that what was happening was a fulfillment of Joel's prophecy (Joel 2:28-32): "In the last days, God says, ‘I will pour out my spirit on all people; your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams . . . ‘" (Acts 2:17). Here, we see Jews of many different languages and nations were hearing the word of the Lord - a word that Yeshua-believers were prophesying among them. Prior to these times, most revelations or words from God came to priests and special individuals for a specific, special purpose. At this time, called Shavuot, we see that God spoke through ordinary believers - simple men following Yeshua - to peoples of all nations and tongues.

Today, we may be surprised that God speaks to the nations through all ethnic groups, male and female, Jews and gentiles, young and old. God uses you to speak to the nations. At Shavuot, we received a very special ability - to be used by God to proclaim the truth about Yeshua to all people. God is still using us today. We must allow the Holy Spirit to fill us - to use us however he can in order to share about Yeshua. How do you open yourself up to this gift? How do you allow God to use you to proclaim his Word to others? Let us be the obedient Israel, who takes up this gift and offers ourselves to the service of God so that the world may know of his incredible love for all people.

NEXT WEEK'S READINGS - PARASHAT BEHA‘ALOTEKHA

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