Leviticus 1:1- 5:26, Eze 45:16-46:18 and Markus 7:1-30
Here we are March 17th , yesterday I blinked and six months have gone by, since Simcha Torah. And we are at parasha vayikra, well, traditionally I would engage in the Torah portion full on, but this time I will deviate from the norm and the tradition, and will look at what the Apostolic writing has to say. This weeks portion is found in Markos 7:1-30. As a Messianic Jew that believes that Yehoshua (Yeshua) is the true Jewish Messiah, then I find it fitting to break with tradition and look at the Apostolic writings that deal with tradition.
The whole chapter starts with a description of those present in the narrative, we have the Prushim, that is Pharisees, and scholars of the Torah. No doubt they came to argue Torah, a very Jewish pastime, we argue we scream at each other and then we eat and celebrate a successful torah study group. From the outside and for those not of Jewish DNA it will seem that a war just being declared and a fist fight is about to break, but not so. All was going well but as soon as they saw that Yeshua’s talmidim were not acting according to the traditions passed down from generation to generation, things went down hill from there. The tradition equated the washing of the hands to spiritual purity, and on seeing eating without washing hands they spoke up, it was only natural, they are the keepers of the traditions and the Torah. However Yeshua had a few things himself to say about the whole scenario.
Where we as human beings, mere mortals, that only see the external, will always worry about that which is external and perceptible to our senses. Yeshua a man endowed with a special soul and anointed by HaShem to fulfil the role of Messiah, saw things a little bit deeper, in fact so much deeper, that he saw the heart as if it was in pure mid day sunlight. He then begun to excoriate them because their hearts were not pure and clean, that tradition had superseded Torah, and as result their hearts were far from HaShem, and love and the real mitzvots. Our Master saw fit to bring the dross out for their hearts and begun to teach everyone present the true nature of whom we are. The heart is devious and deceitful to one self, we are talking about the nature of the human being, the evil inclination that we are born with pass down from generation to generation.
What an insight, he went onto say-'That which is coming out from the man, that doth defile the man; for from within, out of the heart of men, the evil reasonings do come forth, adulteries, whoredoms, murders, thefts, covetous desires, wickedness, deceit, arrogance, an evil eye, evil speaking, pride, foolishness; all these evils do come forth from within, and they defile the man’ was this a new concept? Sukkah 52a:34 - The Holy One, blessed be He, called it Evil, as it is said, “For the inclination of man’s heart is evil from his youth” (Genesis 8:21). and Sukkah 52a:36
3) David called it unclean, as it is said, “Create me a clean heart, O Lord,” (Psalms 51:12), which implies that there is an unclean one. One last one - Mishneh Torah, Repentance 2:4 Anyone who confesses verbally and does not commit in his heart to abandon [sin], this is like a... person who immerses [in a purity pool] while holding an unclean creature in his hand, so that the bath... is not effective until he sends away the unclean creature, and so it says, One who admits….
The whole idea was known all along, but as you well know , knowledge is not the issue, obedience is. One cannot say today I did not know this or that, the information is freely available , a few strokes of the keyboard and we have access to over two millennia of knowledge and writings of the sages and great Tzadikim (righteous ones), for us to learn and apply to our walk.
Here is the key, for this week consider your life , your walk, your thoughts and your actions. The evil inclination in you how strong is it? does it need feeding does it thirst? Yeshua said if your enemy hungers feed him, if he thirst give him drink. Who is our enemy, our evil inclination our own selves, we need to feed the evil inclination bread and give it water. I know what you thinking, “The rabbi lost his marbles!!” Not really, well truth be told yes a long time ago, but the reality is that yes our worst enemy is ourselves and our evil inclination. In Judaism bread equates to Torah and so does water, but water also equates to Messiah. So bread and water to our enemy subdues him Torah and Messiah in our lives, subdues our evil inclination and strengthens us. Your chose like in Mt Sinai choose life or choose death, your choice, I urge you says HaShem choose life!
