Torah 101-Emor Parsha

I.

ANSWERS TO LAST WEEKS STUDY QUESTIONS (from

Kedoshim)

1) Question for Leviticus 19:

What are two places in this chapter that Yshua comes close to quoting though indirectly?
#1:
Yahweh spoke to Moses and said: 2 'Speak to the whole community of Israelites and say:
"Be holy, for I, Yahweh your God, am holy. (Leviticus 19:1-2 NJB)
Mat 5:48 You therefore be perfect76 as your Father in heaven who is
perfect."
(The word for perfectGMIYRAis also used to name a part of the
Talmud [Gemara] but it also means to repeat or practice.)
#2:
I am Yahweh your God who brought you out of Egypt; 37 hence you are to keep all my
laws and all my customs and put them into practice. I am Yahweh." ' (Leviticus 19:36-37
NJB)
(Mat 5:17) Do not think that I've come to loosen58 Torah or the Prophets. I have not
come to loosen but to fulfill59 them through proper meaning. (Mat 5:18) For truly I say to
you that until heaven and earth pass away not one Yodh or one stroke will pass from
Torah until everything happens.60 (Mat 5:19) All who loosen,61 therefore, from one (of)
these small commandments and teach thus to the sons of man, will be called little in the
Kingdom of Heaven, but all who do and teach this will be called great in the Kingdom of
Heaven.
2) Question for Leviticus 20:
What part of this chapter helps refute the Christian myth of Dispensationalism?
Dispensationalism is the idea that there are at least two distinct and mutually exclusive
epochs in Scripture, the Age of Law, which is the wrathful Tanakh and the Age of Grace,
which is the loving NT. One common way of promoting this lie is to insist that the idea
of Yshua or YHWH making righteousness for us only was made possible by the
sacrifice of Yshua on the cross; it could never happen before this time.
The idea behind this assertion is that Christians dont need to keep Torah because their
righteousness comes not by obedience to YHWHs forever commands but by simply
believing in Yshua who, through grace that cannot be earned, gives us righteousness.

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However, as I often point out to Christians, we have ALWAYS been under grace and
NEVER been under the law in this sense, or no one survives Eden, the Flood and so on.
And then there is this line here:
7

"Sanctify yourselves and be holy, for I am Yahweh your God. 8 "You will keep my
laws and put them into practice, for it is I, Yahweh, who make you holy. (Leviticus 20:78 NJB)
And so, contrary to this teaching, YHWH has ALWAYS made us righteous when we
show obedience to His rules! Yshua did not die for this to be given to us. Instead, he
died to bring us forgiveness for those sins that still happen in spite of our best efforts to
live a righteous life. Big difference!
3) Haftorah Question of the Week: Amos 9:7-14
Amos is the only prophet to predict which NT event?
Amos predicted the 3 hours of darkness between the 6th and the 9th hours at Yshuas
death site. He also predicted it would happen at a Great Feast that turns into mourning
and the after effects of Messiahs death.
7

Yahweh has sworn by the pride of Jacob, 'Never will I forget anything they have done.'
Will not the earth tremble for this and all who live on it lament, as it all rises together
like the Nile in Egypt, it swells and then subsides like the Egyptian Nile? 9 'On that Daydeclares the Lord Yahweh- I shall make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in
broad daylight.
8

10

I shall turn your festivals into mourning and all your singing into lamentation; I shall
make you all wear sacking round your waists and have all your heads shaved. I shall
make it like the mourning for an only child, and it will end like the bitterest of days.
11

'The days are coming- declares the Lord Yahweh- when I shall send a famine on the
country, not hunger for food, not thirst for water, but famine for hearing Yahweh's word.
12
People will stagger from sea to sea, will wander from the north to the east, searching
for Yahweh's word, but will not find it.
13

'That Day, fine girls and stalwart youths will faint from thirst. 14 The people who
swear by the Sin of Samaria, who say, "Long live your god, Dan!" and "Hurrah for the
pilgrimage to Beersheba!" will all fall, never to rise again.' (Amos 8:7-14 NJB)

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II.

QUESTIONS FOR THIS TORAH PORTION (Emor)

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!

1) Question for Leviticus 21-22:

How does one word in Leviticus 21:6 help us resolve a conflict between Genesis
4:26 and rabbinic tradition?
2) Question for Leviticus 23:
What does this chapter tell us about calendar secrets?
3) Question for Leviticus 24:
Where in this chapter do we see a clear confirmation of Exodus 12:40?
4) Haftorah Question of the Week: Ezekiel 44:15-21
How does the description of the priests in Ezekiel 44:15 help point to Yshua ha
Mashiyach?
5) Renewed Covenant Commentary: Colossian 2:11-23
Colossians 2:14
10) The Aramaic word khab means both sin and debt and in this case both meanings
are meant simultaneously. Also the Aramaic word shtar means handwriting but
specifically the kind of handwriting that is on a bill, which makes sense if you have debts.
The end result of all this is that the certificate of debts/sins cannot be Torah. Instead it is
the written second witness of our sins which would normally require penalties, but is
nailed to the beam of the stake. YHWH requires that two witnesses come forward to
execute a criminal. He even holds Himself to this standard if He is one of the witnesses.
As a result, when Yshua takes the certificate of our sins, he is in effect taking that
required second witness out of the way. Without the written second witness, though we
sin, we cannot be destroyed for that sin, and can then approach our Heavenly Father
YHWH for the gift of eternal life. (Mat_6:12 some Greek texts read forgive our debts
and others forgive our offenses.)
Colossians 2:16

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11) The Body of Mashiyach must not be concerned with the judgments of those who are
outside the Malchut Elohim, that is, those who don't know Torah or Mashiyach. It is
clear, given the location of this audience and the fact that Rav Shaul always references
Jews directly, that Shaul is addressing the local talk of the pagans whose religion
dominates this region.
Colossians 2:17
12) Compare this with Col_1:24. Paul is stating that the "Body of Mashiyach"
determines how to observe Torah, including Kashrut, Shabbats, Moedim and Rosh
Chodeshim; therefore, don't let lawless pagans judge you; they have their own religious
customs and way of doing things. For example, many choose to attend religious
meetings on Sun-Day, and they have sunrise services on Ishtar (Easter), then for
December 25th they put up a Tammuz (Christmas) tree that commemorates the rebirth of
the Babylonian deity Tammuz. And the gold and silver balls that Christians hang on their
Christmas trees originally represented Tammuz testicles, as he was renowned for
pleasing the ladies. Most Christians know full well that Y'shua was not born on
December 25th, but the pagan celebrations have become such entrenched traditional
rituals that truth has become an embarrassing inconvenience. See Christmas in
Appendix. In other words, don't let family, friends, pastors, or co-workers judge you for
observing truthful Torah festivals, because their motive is for you to return to the pagan
substitutes they themselves prefer. The Church today is following in the idolatrous
footsteps of ancient and modern Israel according to Eze_8:14 and Jer_10:1-25; Jer_17:127. The vast majority of Christians twist this verse to teach that Shabbat and the Feasts
of YHWH were fulfilled by Christ and are no longer necessary which completely
contradicts what Rav Shaul taught that YHWHs Feasts are a shadow of things to
come; not to mention, they are rehearsals for the Bride of Mashiyach! What Mashiyach
and Paul call "good," most Christians call evil; they even believe that their pagan based
rituals are sanctified through a "Christian" label (see Isa_5:14-23). Aramaic translator
George Lamsa also suggests an interesting non-literal sense of the body by translating
but the main objective is of Mashiyach. In other words, we are focused on the sacrifice
Yshua made for us and the commandments of Torah observance that he gave us. While
I cannot find any confirming evidence to render body in this manner, the sense of
Lamsas rendering nonetheless accords well with the main concepts in this chapter.

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