# 49 - Torah Parashah Ki Tetzei (When you go out) honor all life!

this morning's Torah portion is called key tips a who knows what keep Ted stay means he means win and today is when you go out and this Torah portion begins with instruction from on high as to how we are to even honor those when we go out to war do not just blindly become a killer or there's so much death and destruction within war but what you're gonna see throughout this whole core portion is different laws that relate to honoring one another and all life forms it just happens to start off with war and so the Torah portion is called kief it's a which means when you go out to war you can find it in your Bibles in Deuteronomy 21 verse 10 and we see hashem say when you go out to war against your enemies and i don't know your god hands them over to you and you take prisoners and you see among the prisoners a woman who looks good to you and you feel attracted to her and you want her as your wife you're to bring her home to your house and what are you gonna do to honor even this captive or this woman who you're basically taking from the spoils of war you're gonna give her a period of 30 days from morning most likely her family was killed in the war maybe her brothers were killed during the battle and you're gonna give her time to show her mourning by shaving her head and cutting her fingernails and removing her prison clothing and you're gonna give her time to get to know you also because you're gonna take her as a wife so it's not just a matter of taking somebody by force we start off this whole concept of honoring one another with even the focus in the worst possible situation which is war we're going to honor those that we take in war now there's an interesting thing even in this verse 10 where it says when you go out tipet say against your enemies this word is a VESA and in ov eka here you see 2 Yotes when you're reading it in the Hebrew and when you look back in the previous chapter in chapter 20 verse 1 notice how chapter 20 verse 1 says when you go out to fight your enemies that only has one yo'd in the Hebrew so this is a little anomaly why does the word enemy which is normally spelled with only one yo'd all of a sudden have two yards it's because Hashem is telling us something deeper about there's two different enemies don't just be focused on the enemy in the physical realm outside there's an enemy of self residing within that we're waging war against and we have to honor God by also honoring our body the temple of God which is housing his spirit and we have to understand that we are going to implement certain practices when we are at war with ourselves without hurting ourselves there are certain enemies of selfish nature then we're gonna be a battle against but do you take your eyes and drop them off in the father this is a trick if we look at ourselves at the enemy within we only become more like that ugly enemy that we're focused on so there's a hidden nuance here with saying be aware of even honoring the enemy without but also the enemy within because what happens is when you are doing some deep soul-searching in repentance in teshuva you become more aware there's actually good that comes out of it whenever we keep our eyes on the father what do you reckon eyes how you're out of harmony with the father but there's a principle by beholding you become changed into that same likeness so good comes out of recognizing that self is the enemy within the false ego we want to return to the true identity which is his spirit and by focusing on him it's a natural process where we grow back into his image that's why we died daily and recognizing the enemy within there's good that comes out of it if we keep our eyes on him so very beautiful little nuances in the Hebrew right off the bat it goes on to say that this woman who you take from war for your wife will stay there in your house mourning her father and mother for a full month so this is teaching us laws of compassion within honoring life well the most likely they died in the battle when Israel would go into a certain if it was a pagan city or a Canaanite city they would wipe out everything pretty much and so this is and if they weren't wiped out it's because they're taking out of her home out of their home and she's mourning the loss of them because she was taken by force so either way you're showing compassion on this woman who's going to also be a symbol of the life giver because all women you're gonna see this later in the portion even a mother bird we have to have compassion for and honor all forms of life great and small weak and strong so the very first thing is to give her this space after which you might go in to have relations with her and to be her husband and she'll be your wife in the event that she will lose interest in her you are to let her go wherever she wishes but you're not to sell her you're not to treat her like a slave honor her treat her like a wife with honor because you've taken her by force now in verse 15 through verse 17 you're gonna see another aspect of Honor in life if a man has two wives one loved and the other unloved and both the loved and the unloved wives have borne him children and if the firstborn son is the child of the unloved wife then when it comes time for him to pass his inheritance on to his sons he might not give it the inheritance due the firstborn to the son of the loved wife in the place of the son of the unloved wife who is the firstborn once again your showing honor for the firstborn which Hashem originally said he would take as priests for himself so just because you love the other wife more do not honor her son more there's strict laws for giving the inheritance to the firstborn no he must acknowledge his firstborn the son of the unloved wife by giving him a double portion of everything he owns for he is the firstfruits of his manhood and the right of the firstborn is his in verse 18 through 21 we're going to see another aspect for honoring life if a man has a stubborn rebellious son who will not obey what his father or mother says so the father and the mother are the life givers now you're looking at the opposite if a son does not honor his father and mother he's not honoring the very process of life from which he came much like if we don't honor God what happens when you sever yourself from the source of life if there's no connection to the source of life you're entering into a domain of death and this is what a rebellious child does by dishonouring his father and mother so everything that God teaches in the horizontal plane here in the microcosm with father and mother he's trying to teach us a deeper lesson about honoring him as the source of life if he will not obey what his father and mother says even after they discipline him if he still refuses to pay attention to him then his father and mother are to take hold of him and bring him out to the leaders of his town at the gate of that place and say to the leaders of his town the son of ours is a stubborn and rebellious son he doesn't pay attention to us he lives wildly he gets drunk then all the men of the town are to stone him to death and in this way you will put an end to such wickedness among you and all Israel will hear about it and be afraid this was to show when one suffers themselves from the source of life they're entering into a domain of death and this example would be such a harsh example that no other children would have such disregard from the life giver in their parents then we come to a really interesting enigmatic verse speaking of someone who has committed a capital crime and is put to death and they're hung on a tree the body of a person who is hung on the tree is not to remain all night on the tree but you must bury him the same day what does this remind you of Yeshua this is the quote where they said curse it is any man who hangs on a tree in Matthew 27 57 you see them taking down Yeshua from the cross because this was the Roman implement of capital crimes of killing and they called it hanging on a tree it was to curse the person at the same time as killing him but we know we have a high priest who has taken the curse of our sins upon himself so he's when we take inthis curse that he knew in Torah was imposed by hanging on a tree yes exactly because that would be to observe the Torah law it says because a person who has been hanged on a tree has been cursed by God so that you will not defile your land which I deny your God is giving you to inherit so every week we like to go through the parties which is different layers of interpretation and we're gonna see that in each paragraph in this Torah portion everything is talking about different aspects of honoring life what does this bring out in the Ramez or ramez's just beyond the literal and we always look at three things in the Ramez a level of interpretation God's character hidden glimpses of Messiah and how does it apply to us today just a head knowledge of everything that Hashem is teaching us in the Torah means nothing if we don't learn to apply it out in our lives so first like we said by beholding we become changed so we behold God's character first and we see him as the selfless life giver which has compassion on all his creation then we see hidden glimpses of Messiah in this verse 23 which we just read who gives his life and even takes our curse him who knew no sin became sin for us curse it is he who hangs on a tree he gave his life selflessly to reflect God's character and to honor God and the application for us today is we must learn to honor all life and in the next chapter we're gonna see some draw which is an enlarged anomaly in chapter 22 verse 6 which we'll look at in a little bit so we'll continue on first chapter 22 you are not to watch your brother's ox or sheep's train and behave as if you hadn't seen it how does this honor someone so we talk about honoring those in war honoring women honoring parents now we're talking about honoring our neighbors and our neighbors things if you see something that your neighbor owns and it's strayed you don't behave as if you hadn't seen it you don't turn a blind eye to it you must bring it back to your brother if your brother is not close by or you don't know who the owner is you are to bring it home to your house and it will remain with you until your brother asked for it then you are to give it back to him you are to do the same with his donkey his coat or anything else your brother has now how many tribes were there in Israel 12 and after Ephraim was given the double portion firstborn inheritance through Joseph there actually became like 13 but you still recognize 12 tribes because Ephraim and Manasseh would be in the tribe of Yosef and what has happened to the lost house of Israel nine and a half tribes were exiled you see Judah Benjamin and Levi or half of Benjamin and Levi remaining around the Temple Mount area and not being dispersed by Assyria up into the northern kingdoms after Assyria captured the northern ten tribes they didn't kill him but they allowed them to migrate up into Turkey and into Russia and into northern Europe and then when our forefathers came to this land they only recognized themselves as German or Spanish or you know whatever country they came from from Europe but they for all intents purposes had lost sight of their Israeli Hebrew heritage because of the persecution through the Ottoman Empire and the Roman Catholic Church that they had to undergo many people assimilated just to save their family's lives but how does this passage apply now with all of that being said with Judah being our elder brother and we've gone and we've lost some things along the way haven't we but they're holding on to them for us they're waiting for us they're waiting to give them back to us there's a lot that we can learn from Judah and we have to go to our brother and say I'm sorry I've been away and I've lost a few things see notice it didn't just keep the focus on an animal it says anything whether it's his coat or anything else your brother has that he loses if you find something he lost you must not ignore it now who has been preserving the the law the Torah even Jacobs blessing upon Judah says he is the lawgiver and the scepter will not depart from him he is keeping Torah by protecting it preserving it and waiting for his brothers to come home so he can give back what we have let go of it's so beautiful hidden within the little nuances of this one Torah commandment and it really shows how we can honor one another by taking care of one another and one another's things so if there's any area of our life where we see something that our brother might be missing something let's take care of it gently for him until he can until it can be restored to him verse 4 says if you see your brother's donkey or ox claps on the road you may not be you may not behave as if you hadn't seen it you must help him get it up on its feet again you know just like the story of the Good Samaritan you would to feed that animal or like in the case of the Good Samaritan you would pay for the lodging for the medical care of if somebody was sick or hurt and they couldn't take care of themselves and you didn't expect to be compensated when your neighbor came back and let's say his ox had been with you for a couple months and he's eating your grain and then you returned that to him this was just a labor of love this was a way for us to show the heart of Toro which is love in action you give it back to him in better condition or the same condition that you received it and you don't even expect to be compensated for the grain or the same way if you took a servant who had to sell himself like a slave into your care what was the heart of a person who would buy a servant to treat him like a family member in Israel so this is why slavery is totally different in Israel than it was in the rest of the world and this is why God could give laws about slavery even because Torah is love in action when you have somebody in your household you treat them better than yourself to get the best food the best pillow the best bed all of these things in so doing we show how much God has given us and his character of selfless giving it has no limits a woman then it's interesting it goes right into this other and remember last week we talked about how when there was a a law or a verse that seems out of place but it really has deeper significance what was it last week do you remember all of a sudden it started to talk about a sacred pole or a standing stone with the laws of judges but we talked about a person put into that office wrongly is just like an idolatrous standing stone same way now it goes into something seemingly totally different but you're gonna see it still has a connotation of honor and I want you to tell me how or where this found a woman is not to wear men's clothing and a man is not to put on women's clothing for whoever does these things is detestable to Adonai your God here we're talking about honor does this fit with honor how so [Music] yes and Hashem is the life giver he deemed it the best fit that you be a man and that caring be a woman and when we say no I don't care how you created me I have my own mind you make yourself an idol and you dishonor God and you're showing disrespect so this is actually a law of honor to embrace the way God has created you you know he's created us all so different we're like different snowflakes each one is so unique and so beautiful we should really embrace who we are and the gifts that he's given us and not follow after the lusts of our own heart and the wrong thinking of you know well I don't like the way I've been created so I'm gonna change that this is dishonouring to the Creator so it's amazing how even this it seems like totally out of place after speaking of these laws of a brothers ox being lost but it fits with once you get the theme in Torah you can go through a whole Torah portion and what's amazing in last core portion it was a different theme and next week's Torah portion it's gonna be a different theme but this theme you will see throughout this whole poor portion then it's all about honor honoring life as God made it verse 6 says when you are walking along you happen to see a bird's nest in a tree or on the ground with chicks or eggs and the mother bird is sitting on the chicks or the eggs you're not to take the mother with the chicks this is similar to not boiling a kid in its mother's milk it's compassion on the life giver and the only reason why you would ever catch a mother bird because they're so fast is because she would hover over the eggs trying to protect them so have compassion on that instinct of a mother if you're gonna take the eggs do it only to sustain your own life if you're starving don't just break eggs or don't take them unnecessarily it's all about sustaining life honoring life so we honor God and the life he gave us and we take those eggs but we don't take the mother with the eggs and in this verse the word for nest is ten and can you see an enlarged hoof in this word and a coupe is like a race and Koufos right beside raishin they all a Fed now race is looking down the olivet one way and it represents a priest I mean not a priest a kind of like a princely person ahead it's the same word yeah we used called rosh for a president and the rosh the race would be facing this way it's like looking at the back of a person's head but if you look at the coup feza another kind of person he's got a spine here and his head is turning away from something right because the Hebrew goes from right to left so he's actually looking back to the right from whence he came here's the noon the noon is like a seed of life in the paleo-hebrew a noon would be like a little seed it can look like the seed that you know plants a root when you first plant it or it can look like a little sperm and life but it represents life across the board so here you have a man who could be looking at taking this life but he's looking away he's honoring in the nest a little hidden a little hidden image of us honoring all forms of life even the weakest forms of life now Rambam he had one idea of why Hashem said to not take a mother with the eggs and rabbi nachman of breslev had another my mom who we called Maimonides from bomb she would say because we need to honor the fact that she is the mother and that you're only catching her because she's protecting her children that's the reason why we need to not kill her at the same time as you're taking the eggs now rabbi nachman he had a different take on it he said if you take every time let's say we get in the habit and these are laws not just for Israel but ultimately Israel is to be a light to the nations right so if everyone got in the habit of such self-focused that we just took whatever we could whenever we wanted it for our selfish gratification and you end up taking a mother with its young what happens to the species it ends up wiping out a whole species and thus you end up wiping out all life forms on this earth you know you do the same with plant life with animal life with human life and so interesting how these two rabbis had different focuses neither one's wrong both are right in their own ways but this shows the beauty of Torah how we can look at things in multiple ways and it shows honor in both areas and he says in verse 7 you must let the mother go but you may take the chicks for yourself to preserve your own life so that it will go well with you and you will prolong your life so like honoring our life giver and all that he's created it actually prolongs our life verse 8 says when you build a new home you must build a low wall we call that a parapet or a safety rail around your roof otherwise someone might fall from it and you'll be responsible for his death so we also see a glimpse of honoring life by preventing problems potential problems by preserving life and preventing death always thinking in advance we had an old saying in the States an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure this is what the Torah is teaching us that's Torah based we're to take care in advance verse 9 says you are not two so two kinds of seed between your rows of vines if you do both the two harvested crops and the yield from the vines must be forfeited why do you think that is there can be a hybridization of seed then it's no longer the way Hashem created it just like Monsanto corn has spider genes fish genes all of these different things and they say oh it helps resist drought or it helps resist pests but what they're doing is creating another species now the patent office in Washington DC knows that life comes from God so you can't go and try to get a patent on say you find a new type of orchid in the rainforest no I'm sorry God created that but if you modify it and it's something that God did not create then you can get a patent on it this is the whole insidious creating reason why Monsanto is gene-splicing because now it's not the way God created it and they actually can get a patent on these forms of life and so God is telling it's not even two so two types of seed together so that they don't cross pollinate they don't crossbreed they don't hybridize eyes basically he's created everything perfect in its form we need to honor that you are not to plow with an ox and a donkey together why not the Ox is powerful right he's pulling the donkey it's getting pulled along by that yoke so you're honoring there's different kinds of strength different sizes also so even with the species you're honoring the animals you are not to wear clothing woven with two kinds of thread wool and linen together once again it's a it's a symbol of you merging different species together even within the plant life but it took science like so oftentimes Torah will tell us something like not eating something unhealthy and then science finds out the reason why thousands of years later we have found through the study of frequencies and the healing benefits of frequencies that linen which comes from the flax plant emits a frequency of about 5,000 units which is very healing to the body that's why wearing linen in the summertime it breathes good it has good energy now wool in the wintertime what's amazing is it not only gives you warmth but it also provides very healing frequency almost at the exact same about 5,000 units of frequency when you put them together they cancel one another out and so you lose the healing benefit that Hashem has created within these species so don't mix them together but we don't understand it so these are called Koo Kien right the who hold a law which is beyond human reasoning we just need to observe by faith until modern science catches up with it and everything will be confirmed in the end but there's two types of laws the Mishima team and the the Hakim and Mishra team are obvious moral laws which we can say okay I know it means take care of my brother's things that's nice that's good and but there's certain things we don't understand that we need to observe by faith yes [Music] I think it's very unhealthy there have been studies that are done on polyester nylon certain things like that since we don't have a tour law about something synthesized it since it's a synthetic product I'm sure you know it has its purpose for use in different occasions but I wouldn't wear it all the time like sometimes people work out in this type of clothing so they might use an elastic strap to hold up your underwear or you know that type of thing that's gonna be mixed in with the fabric but it's not the predominant either it's not the predominant fabric that's being used or you don't want to wear that all the time it would be better to go back to what Hashem is created in nature linen and wool clothing and we see that in the early Israelite families for thousands of years they were wearing these types of clothing and they were living long and healthy lives remember Moses when he passed away it wasn't from sickness it wasn't from disease it wasn't from old age it was just the time that Hashem says your purpose is complete you're gonna go to sleep with your forefathers but if we lived in harmony with these principles that we're learning in Torah we would have life and have it more abundantly healthier we would be wealthier we would be in every way blessed even if we couldn't understand this particular laws like this one it says [Music] if a man marries a woman then he has relations with her and then having he comes to dislike her and he brings a false charge against her and he defends her character by saying I married this woman but when I had relations with her I did not find evidence that she was a virgin then the girl's father and mother are to take the evidence of the girl's virginity to the leaders of the town of the gate which would have been the sheet that was used when they consummated the marriage when they're in the Hupa and what this man is doing this husband is he's dishonouring this woman for one reason or another he's fallen out of love with her he doesn't like her he's a bad guy for all intents and purposes and he's defaming her character he's basically saying because this was the only law for getting a get you couldn't just say like in Washington state no-fault divorce okay I don't like this person anymore I'm you know gonna file for divorce in ancient Israel there had to be a specific reason and that only reason was if she was not a virgin and you're usually we're supposed to make this known right after the wedding the parents of course would have kept the sheet all of those years and if he ever defamed her character he needed to be held accountable because character assassination is like invent to murder in the Torah when that's another reason why we don't ever speak negative or speak Lashon her against another brother or sister but this man's doing something even worse as a husband who is supposed to protect his wife and care for her he's defaming her character and so the girl's father will say to the leaders I let my daughter marry this man but he hates her now and he's brought false charges that he didn't find evidence of her virginity yet here's the evidence of my daughter's virginity and they will lay the cloth before the town leaders the leaders of that town are to take the man and punish him and find him two and a half pounds of silver shekels which they will give to the girl's father because not only has she dishonored the with the character defamation but she's also dishonored the family a girl is under her father's covering until he gives her to her husband so if you're saying that she's not a virgin you're saying that that father did not properly take care of her raised her with the right admonition and instructions in the Lord and in so doing you're dishonouring that father so this is restitution because he has publicly defamed a virgin of Israel she will remain his wife all of his life and he is forbidden from divorcing her as long as he lives this is beautiful but if the charge is substantiated that evidence for the girl's virginity could not be found then they are to lead the girl to the door of her father's house and the men of her town will stone her to death because she has committed in Israel the disgraceful act of being like a prostitute while still under her father's covering in this way you will put an end to such sin and wickedness among you so you also have to honor God we are all called to be daughters of Jerusalem virgins as his bride corporately in Yeshua we are to be a bride without spot or blemish so this is there's so many ways that we go into spiritual adultery what's that what happens [Music] yes there was laws that we read earlier oh they do yeah if there was a man who forced himself upon a woman he and she screams out he would be killed if she does not scream out you know if she's basically consenting that's the Taurus way of consenting well there's a even if you're scared you should according to Torah you should let it be knowing that somebody is trying to force themselves upon you if you don't it's taken as that consensual right and they should be trained that they need to outside of the city that's right that's that's [Music] there's no screaming there yeah sorry that's exactly right yes because she would still be in her father's house see a daughter should not be out in the field she should be with her family and so she wouldn't be alone if she's out wandering alone there's a problem already there yes Lydia [Music] according to torah a woman is bound to the man until he dies it says just like a man is bound to Torah until he dies this is a symbol that yes however they might not like each other whatever it is but they're bound and this sets an example for Israel you don't take you don't enter into covenants lightly covenants are eternal they don't just do away with covenants that's why there was only one law for allowing somebody to be separated from somebody who had already defiled themselves so verse 22 says if a man is found sleeping with a woman who has a husband both of them must die the man who went to bed with the woman and the woman too in this way you will expel such wickedness from Israel if a girl who is a virgin is engaged to a man and another comes upon her in the town and has sexual relations with her you are to bring them both out to the gate of the city and stone them to death the girl because she didn't cry out for help there in the city notice how I like Viktor says it's clarifying in the city where she could be heard showing resistance and the man because he has humiliated his neighbor's wife in this way you will put an end to such wickedness among you but if the man comes upon the engaged girl out in the countryside now it's making a specification of just somebody who's betrothed even because when you entered into a covenant of betrothal it was just like you were married and a man grabs her and has relations with her then only the man who has intercourse with her is to die you will do nothing to the girl because she has done nothing deserving of death the situation is like the case of the man who attacks his neighbor and kills him for he found her in the countryside and the engaged girl cried out but there was no one to save her so these are laws of honour and integrity which is so beautiful because there's so many things and scenarios that we don't think about in life but they have to be dealt with and the world's whole legal system came from the laws that God gave Israel and this was the foundation of all of the judges and the judicial system in America as well [Music] I don't know they were killed every shot and all the rapes stopped yes breathing soul can you imagine that's what God was doing he's not promoting death or killing or even capital punishment but he's showing the natural cause and effect at some point what is the wages of sin lift left long enough to itself the self seeking is self-destructive and when you're taking something that's not yours that's the ultimate selfish act and so he's showing you the end result is leading to death and if he didn't show you now because remember the Lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world he has stepped in and he has taken that second death that penalty upon himself so that you can live long enough to learn the lessons of life how to live in harmony with life rather than out of harmony and so what this is doing is this showing you the immediate cause and effect rather than letting it go until you know it ends up that's right otherwise we'd wipe out a whole species without with these wrong actions yes Ava [Music] do you image in Israel the counter now you are sick name for a specific fire uh-huh all you know the people there in India they do that a lot of times but the betrothal is just like an agreement between parents they'll say hey we know each other's family you're both of good reputation let's agree that we will stay so close that our son will fall in love with your daughter and what kind of commit to each other make a commitment so you'll see that pre arranged marriage in India but not in Israel yes these same laws would have to apply unfortunately sometimes when people when it happens to your own child your heart gets too blinding your eyes and following Torah David knew what needed to happen with Absalon but probably couldn't bring himself to do it and so yeah it's yeah it bothers me because I guess it's today but I'm in on marrying my rapist no and I would not let my daughter be here that's right but where does it say that [Music] so it says if a person has raped her he dies you do nothing to the girl but he dies it's not condoning it yes that's if it's a virgin right not another person like another one well this is dealing with things that were happening at that time that it's not that he's condoning it but he's basically bringing out the point that somebody is so selfish and lustful in that act that if you're gonna do that you're not going to get away with it you're gonna be responsible for her you're gonna have to take care of her you're gonna so there's a type of compensation that's involved which helps prevent the mindset from doing it because somebody may not want to live with this person so then don't do that I'm sure she did if she went before the judges of the city it says you will do nothing to the girl because she has done nothing deserving of death the situation is like the case of the man who attacks his neighbor and kills him freeze found her in the countryside and the ngage girl cried out but there was no one to save her if a man comes upon a girl who is a virgin but who is not engaged and he grabs her and has relations with her and they're caught in the act then the man who has relations with her must give to the girl's father one and a quarter pounds of silver shekels for restitution to dishonouring the family and she will become his wife because he humiliated her that also the reason is a compassionate one all of these laws of honouring life are laws of compassion because a woman who had been defiled no one else would ever take her and so all of a sudden you've defiled a woman and you've dropped her by the wayside and she's never gonna get married and no and she'll have no one to take care of her in this type of society it's not like women had jobs where they could provide for themselves so Hashem is making sure that she's taken care of by the one who has humiliated her yes Victor this is verse 28 and 29 of chapter 22 and he may not divorce her as long as he lives yeah well but she's didn't cry out remember there's laws for crying out so if this is the case where you know how it's happened before with young people and they find out that these two young people have already and jumped the gun then instead of putting them both to death they're held accountable yeah and that's the main thing that I wanted to convey to Peggy it's not like the type of serial raping that we have today yeah that's the problem with the English yes Chris yes exactly that's the connotation did you everyone here what Chris said she's out in the country because she's meeting him this is where you meet your your boyfriend that maybe your father's not approving of or you know yeah and no way is God condoning rape I [Music] don't see that in mine converts from 28 in the Hebrew oh that's talking about the previous case but not about this case so we have to separate all these different cases scenarios thank you so now in verse chapter 23 we're going to see other laws of honoring the life giver by not reminding him of the sin a man is not to take his father's wife thus violating his father's rights you got to honor your father a man is with crushed or damaged body parts may not enter the Assembly of Adonai once again the Steel's with honor MEMS ear now what's a man's ear somebody who is an offspring by those that Israel was forbidden to marry okay they may not enter the Assembly of Adonai Maine or his descendent down to the tenth generation entered the Assembly of Aden I know emoni or Moabite may enter the Assembly of Aden I nor may any of his descendents down to the tenth generation ever entered the Assembly of Adonai because they did not supply you with food and water when you were on the road after leaving Egypt so this is relating back to a specific case and if you understand the history of Israel you're going to understand this is another part where the oral torah is so important to accompany the written Torah because otherwise you're not going to understand why was Ruth allowed to not only become a part of the Assembly of Israel but also David could become king and high priests basically act as priests he was in the temple and yet he's only third generation from this Moabite woman now I just said that no more bite up to ten generations may enter the assembly if you don't have the oral teachings of our sages and our forefathers you're not going to understand what was happening and what happened when Israel was coming out from Egypt whose responsibility was it within a community to go out and greet a nomadic tribe if they're coming through your territory you don't send your women out to greet foreigners or strangers it's the men's responsibility right the men were to come out with food and provisions for Israel to take care of God's people they had heard the wonderful acts that God had done to Israel for Israel in Egypt in delivering them from Pharaoh bringing them across the Red Sea and what did they do they turned a blind eye it's just like Sodom the sin of Sodom was the hospitality the unkindness and not taking care of the stranger within your gates there's big laws for taking care of the foreigner and the strangers within our gates and they say that sin was greater than the homosexuality in Sodom likewise Moab who was the sin actually attributed to to the men because it's the men's responsibility so the sages have special laws for a woman to marry a Israeli man because they didn't sin against Israel and to convert and to observe Torah but a woman in Israel cannot marry a foreign Moabite man and we only get this if you grow up in Israel you study with the sages the rabbis this is the beautiful richness of our culture that I try to encourage everybody to embrace but there's a lot of fear in the Western society and the specific laws that Yeshua was bringing out against the Pharisees and against some oil oral traditions were only when they would make ritual above compassion you know so let's say they will worry about washing their hands and they don't take care of their father and mother he's gonna rebuke them for that he's gonna set things straight with the laws of honoring and compassion but he wasn't making a blanket statement across the board do not listen to the forefathers do not listen to the sages or the oral that are passed down so it's so important for us to break free from even our anti-semitic wrong views of the oral tradition yes Archie that's right that's right both the I'm like Archie is saying the Amman the emoni comes from Amman and the Moabites come from Moab these were the two sons of the Wat and so they're basically distantly related through and even though it's not under Abraham but it's yeah very good point so this is just a little example of how we have to know more behind the scenes of what's happening and then he goes on to say also because they hired vilom the son of a or from futur in Iran Muharram to put a curse on you but out an I your God would not listen to Bill them rather Adonai your God turn the curse into a blessing so it shows God honoring us as his people because what's the reason because he loves you it's so beautiful it all comes back to relationship he honors you like a bride because he loves you and he's teaching us how to truly love and how to honor one another so you are never to seek their peace or well-being as long as you live but you are not to detest an Edomite who are the descendants of Esau like Archie was saying you're related to them he's your brother and you're not to detest an Egyptian because you lived as a foreigner in his land and was taken care of the third generation of children born to any to them may enter the Assembly of Aden I when you are in camp at war with your enemies you are to guard yourself against anything bad this is about protecting life honoring health and hygiene in essence you're gonna see some different health and hygiene laws and how they honor life and shows us how to also honor God at the same time if there's a man among you who's unclean because of a nocturnal that means a nightly emission he used to go outside in the camp he's not to enter the camp when evening arrives he's to bathe himself in water and after sunset then he's clean again and he may enter the camp health and hygiene is so important you know the old saying cleanliness is next to godliness it's so important you cannot enter into the presence of the Most High harboring any form of Darkness or uncleanliness and so these laws of Health and hygiene II actually show us how to not only honor the vessel that God has given our spirit but also to honor him when it says when you go outside the camp to go to the bathroom imagine two-and-a-half million people this is a huge camp and all their livestock and everybody's got to go past two and a half million people you know and how many of our cities are even two and a half Millions Tacomas not even a million people Seattle is it even two million so it's like walking outside of the Seattle where everybody's camp to go to the bathroom cleanliness is so important you don't mix and this is another reason why if you have a tallit that you're wearing on Shabbat service I just might mention it now we don't go to the bathroom with our tallit on you take your prayer shawl off put it on your chair or on the hanger and you go and use the latrine same way cleanliness and things that are set apart for holy use they're very important to keep separated from those things which are unclean it says if there's a man among you who does this who goes outside the camp you must include a trowel with your equipment what's a trowel a shovel to bury it and when you relieve yourself you are to dig a hole first and afterwards you cover your excrete men for Adonai your God moves about the camp within the camp to rescue you and hand over your enemies to you therefore your camp must be a holy place this is a good example for us to apply today with our homes what things are permissible in the home what things should not be we want to have a sacred holy place for the Lord to dwell with our families to be our protector and our covering I don't I should not see anything indecent among you do you know the priest even had to wear undergarments linen undergarments because even the ramp leading up to the altar of burnt-offering it was considered a holy artifact a holy piece of furniture within the outer Court you didn't even dishonor the stones that were being used as the altar you didn't even let the stones in essence look up your dress so imagine a men who are wearing you know these long linen garments right it would be easy for them not to wear anything underneath Hashem says I want you to cover yourselves even so that the stones don't see so what about in our homes what ways are we acting or talking indecently we don't want to add a nice presence to leave our homes if a slave has encamped on or if a slave has escaped from his master and taken refuge with you you're not to hand him back to his master see because the true form of slave ownership is to take care of them like you would a family member if a slave is running away from his master that means this is a bad master this is a harsh master so Hashem teaches us to protect those who are in need and being mistreated allow him to stay with you in what whichever place suits him best among your settlements do not mistreat him this is showing God's beautiful love for even the servants and the slaves that a slave should only be in our home if we can bless them the reason that a person became a slave in those days was because they couldn't make enough money to take care of their family so they sold themselves into indentured servitude and there was a process by which they would work for so many years and then they would be set free it was never to be permanent and it was never to be mistreated and they would live in your home like one of your own just like Eliezer was thought of as a son by an Abraham yes Steve [Music] well they're not slaves these are illegal immigrants so it's a different issue come all together if you're breaking a law but we are there are laws that pertain to the foreigners within our gays so instead of looking at those like slaves we need to take care of all foreigners who come across our paths in our country because we were once a foreigner in the land of Egypt and so we're always supposed to take care of other foreigners in our land this is Torah now other people might get very legalistic about no you came in by illegal means and so we mistreat you and sends you back but there's a right process by which to take care of people verse 18 says no woman of Israel is to engage in ritual prostitution all call prostitution arose from idol worship from the fertility worship of Sumer amias which took on different names down through the ages which also became known as Ishtar and libertas and so to this day people might not recognize it but all prostitution comes from false worship this is no man of Israel ISM to engage in ritual homosexual prostitution the origins of homosexuality was the same called false god worship because young men is another reason for growing your beard God wants you to look like a man that he created you to be these men would shave themselves make themselves very effeminate engage in all kinds of practices with the false god priests and today they've disassociated that with idol worship and with these pagan practices but we have to recognize its source and teach people to abstain from these sinful abominations that separate themselves from God we do it because we love them we want them to be able to have a relationship with God doesn't mean that every person has to marry even though it's a mitzvah to marry and be fruitful and multiply if somebody is not attractive to the opposite sex it doesn't mean you have to engage in homosexual acts you can abstain live a life for God of abstinence and this is what should be taught in love not in the wrong form of judgment and persecution the next verse says nothing nothing earned through heterosexual or homosexual prostitution is to be brought into the house of the Lord your God in fulfillment of any vow for both of these are abhorrent to Adonai your God once again laws to honor the source of life another reason why homosexuality is forbidden within Israel and largely in the world in God's sight is because once again if you honor life you're gonna perpetuate life right and there's a way to perpetuate life between the male and the female species which when they come together more fully reflect the whole of the divine source when you cut off yourself from being fruitful and multiplying ultimately you're leading a life that leads to death and just like the mother bird and the eggs you would in the species if everybody let's say everybody chose to be homosexual right what happens to the species one generation and they're gone forever so we want to be children of light and life not children of death and darkness so we have to be able to explain these things and articulate them in a reasonable way not just because we're homophobic or because we're judgmental or no there's a reason for why God is giving these laws He loves us he wants to give us life and life more abundantly when you make a vow to Adonai your God you are not to delay in fulfilling it Friday night your God will certainly demand it of you this is honoring your word and your failure to do so we'll also bring about a cause and effect but if a vow passes your lips you must take care to perform it according to what you voluntarily vowed to Adonai your God what you promised in words spoken aloud when you enter your neighbor's vineyard you may eat enough grapes to satisfy your appetite so this is a sustained life but you're not to put any in your basket so that means don't take excess that's like stealing if you're starving and you need to sustain your life as you're passing through your brother's vineyard you're allowed to take enough food to eat but you don't go and collect enough that you're gonna sell it or save it for later when you enter into your neighbors field of growing grain you may pluck ears with your hand but you are not to put a sickle to your neighbour's grain this is what Yeshua was doing as he was passing through the field enough to get a little green in the hand just a sustained life as you're walking through you're passing through so we honor life by sustaining it but we don't dishonor others by seeking to take more than what we need these are beautiful principles that if we would get the principle in place it will apply across the board we wouldn't have to look at all these little you know if this happens and this happens these different situations we would have tore written upon our heart and we would live it out naturally and that's what God is hoping that we will come to by studying Torah and ultimately the living tour is going to teach the written Torah and write it upon our hearts so that we won't have to refer to a scroll or a book any longer and we'll live out these principles because we understand the principle if you only look at the law and you just simply memorize memorize laws ritualistically you're always gonna be prone to breaking laws because there's always new situations that arise but our God's not a situational God he's the same yesterday today and tomorrow and when we get the principle in place we're gonna transcend space and time and situation and we're gonna be able to apply them across the board and never break Torah and that's the reason for teaching not only adults but our children more importantly how to understand the principle and how to live by the principle yes whatever yeah I wouldn't take a branch but I today the way they look at it is it's more polite to ask so if you can't ask it now if you're starving I would say take eat and you know sustain life that's most important but none of us are starving we have way more than what we need and so we need to be a light to people and what a witness to go and say I noticed your beautiful tree and the beautiful fruit and I was just wondering if I could sample a single fruit off of your tree I don't want to take a box or basket you know it could open up the door for building a relationship for planting seeds of truth and win which case if you had just taken it and you lose that opportunity or shim to work through you to be a witness and showing how much you honor that person and if they say no I don't want anybody touching my tree you say I completely understand them out there no we're not supposed to do it because we're anxious we're supposed to do it to sustain life that is a difference so always use everything as an opportunity to be a light and to be a witness yes Lin I heard of mine years it is such a bad feeling my grace all of them - not just a few that is such a bad feeling we know some animals that do that - we've had some very steal some pairs and we had this fig tree that we waited the three years for the figs to produce you know how the tourist says give a tree after you plant it three years and there's these beautiful figs growing on it and we told she kind of look this is your fig when it gets ripe you're gonna get to eat this and the day came to go and pick it and it was gone yesterday I was here and they don't honor life but the only way people are gonna learn is if we be the change that we want to see in this world we have to live in an honourable way so that people can learn what it means to live in an honourable way it inspires others for change yes Jimmy that's right yeah very seldom will that ever happen if you ask but if you do most likely that person has more needs and there's a reason why God brought you into his life because if somebody is so selfish that they won't even give you one piece of fruit then maybe you can befriend them and ask them is there some way I can serve you and honor that don't go away mad because he didn't give it to you show the love of God and say I completely understand that must be really precious to you your whole land must be precious to you is there some way that I can help you or serve you and and boy what an opportunity that would be too fragrant yeah I think I went view about this Drive Thru today that's right this is a direct result of righteousness or wickedness righteousness always manifests itself an acts of kindness and wickedness is always self centered self exaltation self gratification self in all its forms leads to self-destruction and that's right the very principle of life itself is selfless giving and that's why Hashem he can't help but manifest his love in light and in creation of all life forms because this is what selfless love does it's always giving it's not taking the reason we have two hands if you want to look at it Kabbalah Stickley we have a hand to receive so that we can give more so we're just to be a flow through a conduit we don't have two hands for taking taking taking we have a hand sometimes you have to help yourself to help others right so we have two hands and this is the yes and ultimately our hand is not taking from another human but from a Shem if we live in harmony with his principles we are going to be blessed and we're gonna have our cup running over so that we can be a blessing to others that's the exciting thing when people when the nation's see Torah in action they're gonna see how much you're blessed and they're gonna want to have what you have and that's the greatest witness chapter 24 continues this theme of honoring and says suppose a man marries a woman and consummates the marriage but later finds her displeasing because he has found her offensive in some respect he writes her a divorce document gives it to her and sends her away from his house she leaves his house goes and becomes another man's wife but the second husband dislikes her and writes her again and gives it to her and sends her away from his house or the second husband whom she married dies in such a case her first have the husband who sent her away may not take her again as his wife this is why Paul in the New Testament said if a woman commits adultery you're not to take her back it's not about being harsh but it's because she's become defiled and the Torah says that either if she's gone and been with somebody else for whatever reason then she's not to go back to the original husband because she's now defiled it would be detestable to Adonai and you're not to bring about sin in the land Adonai your God is giving you as an inheritance so in the theme of honor we have to realize that defilement separates us from God and it dishonours him as the life source so sometimes the pitcher is bigger than just we of ourselves if we're gonna if it's gonna be something that defiles us to the point where it causes separation between us and God then we need to honor God in the way he's instructed us to not be defiled yes I thought it was always Mary well that was the most common form of adultery yes the reason but from the beginning it was not so far yes then it could be a beautiful example of God's forgiveness correct which was a type of adultery and yeah then he goes on to say in verse 5 if a man has recently married his wife he's not to be subject to military service he's to be free of external obligations and left at home for one year to make his new wife happy so this is something we should take to heart as well this is something you don't see that often in today's society the purpose of marriage is to honor and perpetuate life and we need to honor that by if you take a wife you need to be ready to be living with her not just take her and have to go away to war or for some other reason 4/6 says no one may take a mill or even an upper millstone as collateral for a loan why the mill stone was used for producing the grain for your bread which fed the family so you take a person's millstone as collateral you're taking away his ability to eat and your dishonouring life the way to perpetuate life so when people don't understand the theme of the Torah portion look at how easy it would be to say what an arbitrary law all these different arbitrary laws but you see the common theme of them is so beautiful by having compassion and understanding and honor for your fellow man they married and remarry and divorce include marriage yes this country is not following God's law unfortunately it says if a man kidnaps any of his brothers his fellow members of the community of Israel and makes him his slave or sell sim that kidnapper must be put to death in this way you shall put an in to such wickedness among you when there's an outbreak of Sarah odd Sarah odd was the disease that was caused by speaking negative against your fellow man Lashon Hara this is be careful to observe and do just what the priests who are Levites teach you take care to do as I ordered them remember what I deny your God did to Miriam on the road after you left Egypt what did Miriam do she spoke against Moshe against his leadership and all sudden she came down with Sarah odd so he's likening so that nobody misunderstands the origins of how bad the evil speech is anytime that we falsely accuse or slander one another or belittle one another we're aligning ourselves with the enemy and we're becoming a double witness against that person we already have one accuser of the Brethren it only takes two to enact the death decree so we don't want to place ourselves in that domain when you make any kind of loan to your neighbor you are not to enter his house to take his collateral you must stand outside and the borrow or bring the collateral out to you why do you think this is ah that's one thing very good so you might take the most expensive thing or yeah something that but also you're honoring him as the head of household his children they're all huddled up inside maybe they have no food inside he's poor there's a reason why he had to get a loan already and you go in as the Big Shot loan giver and you embarrassed him in front of you his children and you show that Dad had to get a loan he can't provide for you it's dishonouring to the family to the head of household so we should really be so careful even when somebody does something wrong we know dead is a form of slavery there's many ways that we're all making mistakes but when we see a brother make a mistake are we there to build him up and to help him or are we just talking about one another and in so doing dishonouring one another or belittling or causing them to be looked at as less than to their family so important to think just like when you place chest you think seven steps down the road you know what is the end result of this action of even going in the house well you don't want to dishonor your husband in the community or in the eyes of the community so there's an honorable way to take care of every situation that's wisdom when if he's poor you're not to go to if he is poor you're not to go to bed with what he gave as collateral in your possession after looking at all those loss of husband and wife and man and woman I had to reread that wait a second what are we talking about here what did he give his collateral he gave his wife it just means don't go to sleep with what he gave as collateral in your possession rather you must restore the pledged item as sunset then you will go to sleep wearing his garment and bless you and that's the whole thing when we are blessed Hashem is blessed this will be an upright deed of yours before I deny your God and in so doing we're even honoring those that have to take loans we're honoring the borrower it's so beautiful those that are poor those that are distraught you are not to exploit a hired worker who is poor and needy whether one of your brothers or a foreigner living in your land or in your town you are to pay him his wages the day he earns them so in this way we're honoring even in payment we're honoring and lending we're honoring and giving also if somebody works for you the day that he works for you whatever you wage you agreed that you would give him for his day's wage you should pay him that day he needs it says otherwise he will cry out against you and it will be your sin this will be considered as sin fathers are not to be executed for the children nor are the children to be executed for the fathers every person will be executed for his own sin so when we're looking at yeshua how does this fit with torah can somebody die for another person sin according to torah what time and fathers if we looked at Hashem are not to be executed for the children so some people say well it's the divine aspect of the word that you know the creator is dying for the created but even if that's the case fathers are not to be executed for the children nor our children to be executed for the father's every person will be executed for his own sin so as we come in line with Torah this is something that we have to reconcile in our own life as to what was the real purpose of Yeshua not only did he fulfill all of the prophecies about him coming like on Tim O'Shea a prophet like unto Moshe but he's the greatest example of the father's character of selfless love and so go ahead Tammi they had actually committed the same sin as Korah by aligning themselves with his rebellion that's right and the ground opened up yeah this shows the huge responsibility of us as leaders and as husbands and and mothers fathers and mothers in the home what happens if dad's upset with the neighbor haul that no-good neighbor he borrowed this tool and he didn't bring it back and the kids say yeah that neighbor he's no good and see everybody starts thinking negative and in so doing they all commit the sin Cora Kay was a leader then awesome the other leaders started following the heat that first thing only got 250 along with him in rebellion but there was 14700 who died because of aligning their mindset that negative mentality along with Corrie billion yeah he's right Moshe Hayes doesn't deserve to be the only leader there should be other leaders and see when we align ourselves it's kind of like mob mentality or when somebody starts focusing negatively against the leader and everybody jumps on the bandwagon be very careful because it leads you down a road from which there's hardly ever returned it's not because there's no grace it's because when you harden your heart against somebody the pride and the ego very seldom once you go so far down a path do you ever come back from it even if you're not seeing death as an immediate result of that negative thought process it leads you a way to divide the family of God and so yeah the wives and the children were involved in that negative rebellious in in that case but that's not always the case yes whatever these lady has I think there's help for people like that she might be committed in marriage to him doesn't mean she goes out and cheats on him right but she gets some help this man yes Chris and there was a time where I very yeah and father made it clear of my heart that I was still married that's beautiful but and I'm and I made that clear to him we'd already done everything we can try to and he's got a sickness and he needs help and it means to be dealt with and and I had permission to leave and it did take me a couple is to finally get to the point where I about bitterness and hatred in me because is it's important to not leave with that that's right and that's so important if they need to be able to do they need to be able to make men but when you've done everything you can yes it goes to them they that direction my late husband by a newer set free beautiful what's a marriage well like in her case she says the husband passed away she was honorable until that time she then she's set free when someone dies then the woman is set free remember the Holy Spirit I knew he needed to make corrections in his life I don't fit my heart it's beautiful when your heart is in the right place to align yourself with Hashem in his ways you will experience radical forgiveness even in the midst of abuse and amazing compassion because you realize this person is sick and you're you're addressing the sin and the sickness without any animosity or bitterness towards the center and the perpetrator and so this is a great example of that may we all have that kind of grace and keep our focus on never yeah that's the miraculous power of his love that's beautiful good example yeah we never want to promote or condone any situation just breaking Torah you know many people will say well what about this case what about that case it's almost like we're looking for ways to justify breaking Torah but we should look for ways that we can keep Torah against all odds and God will provide the strength and the means to be able to fulfill that yes Lydia beautiful that's wonderful yes Kevin haha a person has to be executed for their own si and ass any man than this amen so when he freely gives up his life does it justify a sinner continuing in his sin see if if a sinner has to be executed for his own sin then that act of love is just that it's the greatest example of the Father's love ever seen throughout history but in no ways does it condone the continuation of sin because the Torah is still going to be fulfilled it's not as if he's able to miraculously change God's law and you can now sin and be in the presence of God sin all sin severs you from god it even Isaiah says your sins have made a separation between thee and thy God and in so doing if God is the source of life death is the natural byproduct of it so you guys have hit it on the head with understanding that he's not required and he's not taking somebody's sins so that they can continue sinning and live he is freely giving his life as the greatest example of selfless love and that is what motivates our heart and Woo's our heart back into right relationship and then we want nothing to do with sin when we see what it has done and what it will do we totally have radical repentance we have such a to Shuba that we return to the source with the greatest motivator is always love never fear punishment or reward of heaven or eternal life those aren't true motivators only this amazing love and so that's the difference from this text I'm glad that you addressed it yes Lydia that's right it's a so inspirational that it motivates people to be like that rather than it's beautiful meaning this chapters closing verse 19 goes into harvesting and laws of honoring there when harvesting the grain in your field if you forgot a sheaf of grain there you're not to go back and get it how come because there's gonna be a foreigner or maybe a poor person who could use it so you purposely leave even a whole sheep if you forgot it leave it it was meant to be sometimes we lose things or we think somebody something was stolen from us and you have you ever at first felt that anxiety like did somebody take this and then all some God gives you the peace let go of it it's gonna be for their good they need it worth more than you one time I was coming back from a mission project and I had this Bible that I had had for 25 plus years and I had hundreds of studies that I had done in the Hebrew topical studies any topic that you could be interested in I had multiple verses pertaining to that subject you know and they all were by topic in the back of my Bible and I would go to the first text and then the next text you know all this and I would use this when I was working with different cultures whether in Africa or India and it was like my most prized possession and I came back and my bag came down the chute I had back in America and it was unzipped and TSA had gone through it and I looked to see what if anything was missing and that's the one thing that's missing is this Bible and immediately I thought oh no it's you know my most prized possession I can't even do half the work that I'm doing cos after we meet people's physical needs we meet their spiritual needs by whatever their interests are you know we can lead them into a Bible study and the father put on my heart complete peace not only would it be continued to be used for good whoever would have access to that Bible as they would open it up they could see all the references and it would continue to be a witness and a light wherever it went but also he wanted me to come to the word with new eyes with baby eyes to look at His Word as if I'd never seen it before because we all get locked into certain paradigms and he says I'm gonna be your teacher and I'm gonna show you things that you would never have seen if you had kept getting locked into your and your dog-eared you know and it was the greatest blessing he actually fulfilled that and in the years to come things were revealed to me on certain subjects that I thought I had understanding that I saw with a completely different paradigm because he was my teacher and he had set me free from that paradigm so look at how even something seemingly bad can be used for good same way with leading leaving a sheaf of grain in the in the field or like we went and we harvested potatoes and we gleaned potatoes and we used them to give to the poor this is for good don't go back and try to nitpick that you have every last piece of grain leave it for the foreigner and the orphan and the widow this is true pure undefiled religion those that fit sit widows and orphans in their time of need James says so this is really true spirituality if we're more than having an intellectual assent to knowledge if we're living acts of honoring life and compassion by visiting the poor the orphan and the widow this will be honorable in the sight of God Farmers of Israel intentionally would leave or would actually start a harvest maybe a little bit bigger maybe but they're going to give that's a good point the heart say and sleep yeah not only are you not supposed to go back for that which was left but you're also supposed to leave all the corners of the field available for the poor and the widow and the orphan so that I don't know your God will bless you and all the work you do when you beat your olive trees you're not to go back over the branches a second time the olives that are left will be for the foreigner the orphan and the widow and when you gather the grapes from your vineyard you're not to return and pick grapes a second time what is left will be for the foreigner the orphan and the widow remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt that's why I'm ordering you to do this in this beautiful for the ways that we can honor all life rich and poor young and old now in 25 chapter 25 we're gonna see laws of how to honor injustice how to honor working animals how to honor each person's life I had a few slides that we we're going to look at how the New Testament even relates to this you know when God says in as much as you've done it to one of the least of these I've done it unto me so we literally honor God by honoring others by honoring our fellow man Matthew 7:12 is where he said that as much as you do it to one of the least of these all said in Ephesians 4:32 be kind and compassionate to one another an ethical life is built of integrity honesty kindness decency belief in truth justice and this is what we're leading into here in chapter 25 that made me think of this slide honor love respect compassion working together to make life better and this is what we called tikkun olam to repair the world our responsibility if a people have a dispute seek its resolution in court and the judges render a decision in favor of the righteous one and condemning the wicked one then if the wicked one deserves to be flogged the judge is to have him lie down and be flogged in his presence the number of strokes is to be proportionate to his offense but the maximum number is 40 see you had to even understand that the human body can only take so much and so one thing is punishment should never be done in anger this should be directly a result of justice depending on how much the judges determined a person needed this flogging a person is not to exceed 40 if he goes over this limit and beats them more than this your brother will be humiliated before your eyes so you're even honoring the life and the person who is being punished you're not to muzzle an ox when it is treading out the grain so if this ox is working for you does it deserve to eat to build strength and sustenance so you're even honoring working animals if brothers live together and one of them dies childless his widow is not to marry someone unrelated to him her husband's brother is to go to her and perform the duty of the brother-in-law by marrying her the first child she bears will succeed to the name of his dead brother so that the name will not be eliminated so even your name there's ways that we can honor one another's names and one another's families one another's tribes see that would also keep the wife within the tribe instead of marrying outside the family or outside the tribe and preserve the the brother's name because that firstborn son would take the surname like I'm Yitzhak Ben the vide every month took instead of having last names in those days you have you know been his son of and then you would have your father's name so that child would be say Shem you'll been Jochen on or whatever whatever the father that had died his name was that son even though it's the brother's son would be that brother would always be remembered so you're even honoring lost life these are such amazing principles that we can meditate all day on each one of them says if the man does not wish to marry his brother's widow then his brother's widow is to go up to the gate to the leaders and say my brother-in-law refuses to raise up for his brother a name in Israel he will not perform the duty of a husband's brother for me the leaders of his town are to summon him and to speak to him if on appearing before them he continues to say I don't want to marry her then his brother's widow is to approach him in the presence of all the leaders and judges in the town and she'd take his sandal off his foot and she would spit in his face and she would say this is what's done to the man who refuses to build up his brother's family this was such a dishonouring thing to leave her destitute and to leave her brother's name without honor that this was a major statement in front of the city gates from that time on and his family is to be known in Israel as the family of the man who had his sandal pulled off if men are fighting with each other and the wife of the one comes up to help her husband get away from the man attacking him so there's even honor in fighting let's say that somebody breaks into your house and he's overpowering your husband you have a right to go and help your husband right but you don't play dirty look at what the text says you're not you and the wife comes up to help her husband get away from the man attacking him by grabbing the attackers private parts with her hand you are to cut off her hand show no pity see she has to have a certain honor one for not defiling herself with touching another man's private parts but also honoring what those private parts are used for they're used to seed life right so you're not supposed to crush a man's private parts so even though you're supposed to protect your husband from that other man you're not supposed to play dirty and well we just sometimes have to go by faith and say there's got to be other ways to trust God when we trust God we say we trust God do we really trust him if the Torah says not to do something we have to by faith just say okay I don't understand it yeah and like Chris said they're promoting that nowadays what's up show me what you want me to do yeah I mean God will provide a way if no things are done in ignorance in the past many people don't even know Torah so you can't hold it against them like the Scriptures say god winks at our ignorance but when you know this then don't you think that God is going to honor you by trying to honor his Torah and provide a way it says you are to not have in your pack two sets of weights one heavy and the other light so when you would do trading bartering in the marketplace everybody would carry these little weights and they could wait things out and especially a merchant to have two different weights something that was loaded so that you would pay more for something that weighs less this is a type of theft and so you have to even honor in business these are laws to honor see if you understand the principle it's not just about using weights cuz we don't use weights anymore so don't get caught up in the minutia of the literal look at the theme overall principle is honor and then what is the small theme in business be honorable in business don't cheat somebody don't charge somebody more than what something is worth you are not to have in your house two sets of measures one big and the other small you are to have a correct and fair way and you are to have a correct and fair measure so that you will prolong all your days this is about preserving life there's principles inherent in living in harmony with the principles of life that I don't know your God is giving you for all who do such things all who deal dishonestly are detestable to Adonai your God [Music] remember what I'm elected to you on the road as you were coming out of Egypt how he met you by the road and he attacked those in the rear those who were exhausted and straggling behind when you were tired and weary he did not honor God did he says he did not fear God therefore when a deny your God has given you rest from all your surrounding enemies remember the the Torah portion started off with when you go out against your enemies God is gonna give us rest from our enemies both the internal enemies which sometimes tempt us to cheat or tempt us to do wrong things the external enemies in the land might be Islam it might be another persecuting power but Adonai our God if we will live by these laws to honor him he is going to give us the land as our inheritance and we will blot out all memory of Amalek which is synonymous with all those that want to take us wrongly and want to cheat us and want to kill us and every negative power that you can think of Amalek is a symbol of and it said that amalek will arise in every generation because there's always those that will seek to wipe out god's people and the ultimate enemy is the enemy within the self that we have to fight against so may the memory of Amalek be blotted out both internally and externally from under heaven do not forget the Torah portion closes with these words do not forget now all of these laws that we looked at today would have seemingly been unrelated to one another if we hadn't understood first the theme that they all relate to how we honor God by honoring one another and honoring all forms of life so as we close today let us enter into that meditative state throughout our week and throughout our year of how we can honor God by honoring one another and honoring be honoring and business be honoring in relationships be honoring in animals be honoring even with the plants and the trees because we're in a symbiotic relationship with them we should honor all forms of life and this is what Hashem is trying to teach him so don't just think about human life you know the greatest example is we need to honor God but how do we honor God by honoring one another and how do we honor him in addition to honoring one another the animals the trees and every single thing we should start looking beyond just like the fifth commandment when it says honor your father and mother our spirit our true identity comes from Heavenly Father but our body the vessel comes from earthly mother so if we're truly keeping the commandments we're gonna honor both spheres the Father in heaven the earth and all its forms only take what you need don't live beyond your means all of these are part of the principle of honoring life so with that as we get ready for lunch let's stand and we will close a prayer yes Tammy they said yeah I've been hit savor or put her down Wow that's beautiful amen we need to have more compassion in our life in all areas thank you for that father father we thank you Lord for revealing your beautiful nature to us so that by beholding we could become changed into your likeness of selfless love of compassion and respect and an honor for all forms of life which you have created we asked you to give us the wisdom and the strength to apply these principles across the board father so that we would be glorifying to you and that we would be a light to the nation's and that all who would see our justice and our righteousness in our lives would be drawn into a closer relationship with you we love you and we thank you for your torah we thank you for the understanding that you have given us you are the ultimate teacher father and may all our eyes be stayed upon you we love you we thank you and we asked your blessing upon the food and the fellowship that we are about to receive and your Holy Name we pray amen

Channel: Assembly of Called-Out Believers

Views: 10,380

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Keywords: Torah, Parsha, Parashah, Parashah Ki Tetzei, Ki Tetzei, Called Out Believers, Assembly of Called-Out Believers, Torah Study, Pastor Isaac, Rabbi Yitzchak, Learn Truth, Torah Truth, Honor, honor all life

Id: P1n0cC5YLjc

Length: 96min 2sec (5762 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 03 2017