Va etchannan ( I Pleaded)
This parashah begins with the word va’etchanan jnxtav which means pleaded from the root chanan jnx - grace. Moshe was looking for G-d’s gracious acceptance of his plea. He never asked G-d for anything for himself but this time he was begging to cross the Jordan and enter the Promised Land but he was turned down. In reading Moshe’s words, it looks like he is blaming the people for the fact that he couldn’t go but in actuality, he is simply giving them the facts— he is saying to them that if he hadn’t lost his temper, he wouldn’t have been in this situation. However,if G-d had allowed Moshe to continue as leader, the people would never have followed Joshua and it was Joshua’s time to take over. In any organization the old leader needs to leave before the new one can be accepted. Moshe like a loving father was so anxious that the children would learn from the mistakes of their fathers and that this generation would succeed. However sadly enough, they would turn out even worse than the preceding generation. Things have not changed since those days. Even though we live in an age when technology has advanced beyond our imagination and knowledge is increasing at lightning speed, the heart of man has not changed. We do not learn from the past. We are a social animal and we can be extremely self-centered and selfish. In order to live in society, we develop religions instead of relationships with G-d. We try to protect ourselves by limiting the rights of others. Most of our laws are made to limit man by building fences of protection but our nature is to try to jump these fences.
Deuteronomy 4:2 very clearly states that we are not to add nor subtract anything from His Word for it is through them that we will be able to live. Traditional Judaism believes that when Moses was on Mount Sinai for 40 days and nights writing down the words of the Torah, God also provided him with additional explanations that were not explicitly incorporated into the written text. This additional commentary and elucidation of the written Torah is called oral Torah or Torah she'bal peh (תּוֹרָה שֶׁבְּעַל פֶּה) [from al peh, "by mouth"]. The words that Moses finally committed to writing in the Torah scroll (ספר תורה) are called Torah shebikhtav (תורה שבכתב). According to this view, there were actually two Torahs given to Moses on Sinai: the written Torah and the oral Torah, and together these are considered the full revelation of the Torah.
Our sages knew that they could not change the written Torah so in order to be able to add or take away— they formulated the Sheve al peh or the oral Torah. In this way, the oral words of Moshe could be added to or subtracted from in order to build a fence - seyag (סיג) around the written Torah (תורה שבכתב). Thus we would be protected from breaking His Word. Their desire was to help and to protect the people. They well knew the dire consequences of breaking Torah.
This understanding is in the opening verse of the Pirke Avot ("Chapters of the Fathers"), a tractate of the Mishnah: "Moses received the Torah from Sinai and transmitted it to Joshua; Joshua to the elders; the elders to the prophets; and the prophets handed it down to the men of the Great Assembly. They said three things: Be deliberate in judgment, raise up many disciples, and make a fence - seyag סיג)) around the Torah."
Rambam (Maimonides) wrote: "Every commandment which the Holy One, blessed be He, gave to Moses our teacher, was given with its clarification. First, he told him the commandment (Written Torah) and then he expounded on its explanation and content including all that which is included in the Torah" (Commentary on the Mishnah).
Maimonides codified the Torah and taught that our sages from Israel were authorized to build fences in order to protect the people. For example Maimonides who was very rationalistic, commenting upon the verse in Torah in which it is written that we are not to cook a calf in its mother’s milk. In the TB Chulim 113a, where Rabbi Iosi Hagalili , says that the prohibition of this verse has nothing to do with eating poultry meat because poultry is not a mammal; Maimonides says in order to avoid speculations or literal interpretations which would reduce the teaching in nothing, the teachers of the Talmud , known as the Rabbanan- our teachers- built a protective fence around the Torah, including in this prohibition the poultry meat for the benefit of the people. But which has nothing to do with Kashrut but G-d made a simple Mitzvot of rachamim, compassion for animals. How did we jump from mercy to kashrut? This is only one example of what has been done and has caused much division within Judaism over the centuries. Who authorized them? For the Orthodox Jews the Oral Torah holds more authority than the Written Torah.
The Shabbat has been emphasized in this parashah as well and sadly enough, our rabbis have come to the conclusion that the gentiles are not to keep the Shabbat; that it is only for the Jews. This is a travesty of G-d’s Word especially when it clearly states it in the 10 Words עשרת הדברים; number four stating that not our animals or the stranger among us is to work on Shabbat.
Also in this week’s parashah “SHEMA ISRAEL YHWH ELOHEINU YHWH ECHAD” (Hear Oh Israel YHWH is Our G-d YHWH is ONE) (Deut. 6:4). Judaism knows the word Echad to describe the One and only G-d. From this portion we need to address a subject that is very important and delicate but which has divided the world: Is about: Who is Yeshua? Who is the Messiah? Is he G-d or is he not G-d? Was he a mere man? Was he half man, half god? This is a 2000 year old question which Jews and Christians will argue about to their death…how can you say that Jesus Christ is/ is not G-d?
If you are a Jew the whole idea of a god-man is impossible. That is a Hellenistic idea with heroes such as Hercules or Apollo being part of their mythology. The gentiles in order to explain the nature of Jesus Christ, formulated new words or definitions that are not Biblical such as hypostasis (ὑπόστᾰσις) existence and Homoousian (ὁμοούσιος) same essence, In this way they could make their own doctrines, trying to prove the plurality of G-d; influenced by the philosophy and religions of their time. But to a Jew this is craziness.
The New Testament became the “Christian Talmud” where a basic understanding in Orthodox Christianity being that the Scriptures are interpreted in the light of the New Testament; however we know today that the New Testament (a so called misnomer) has been badly adulterated and it has been doctored from the original words of the followers of Yeshua. With the formulation of Systematic Theology in order to study G-d and to divide the Word accordingly, were invented methods of interpretation outside the Jewish methods. These supposedly became more accurate than the Word of G-d and supposedly brought us to the right interpretations through the use of their new tools. Two words that became very useful at that time were Exegesis (from the Greek ἐξηγεῖσθαι 'to lead out') and Eisegesis (from Greek εἰς "into" and ending from exegesis from ἐξηγεῖσθαι "to lead out"). With a desire to interpret the Scriptures correctly, we would need to do Exegesis, but when we have a pre-conceived idea of what we want the Word of G-d to say then we do Eisegesis.
Deuteronomy 29:28 states “The secret things belong unto the LORD our God; but the things that are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.” Why must we constantly try to explain the unexplainable and call others heretics when we don’t agree with their definitions of the indefinable G-d? Isaiah 40:22 states “who can know the mind of G-d?”
As a Jew when I found the Messiah, I found the “Way” back to G-d. I did teshuvah back to the G-d of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. I knew that my life was transformed because my values, my attitudes and my behavior changed. It was a total change of heart. Yeshua led me to pray to the G- d of heaven, the G-d of Israel. Unless you are a Hebrew, you can never understand the representative of G-d on earth. The judges were called Elohim… The Naviim (prophets) were messengers from G-d acting on behalf of G-d. The Malachim, Angels were messengers of G-d. Yeshua Our Messiah was Elohim, judge; He was acting as a judge from G-d for only G-d can judge. He was The Prophet of Deut. 18:18, and he was The Malach Elohim.
Yeshua the Messiah is the greatest man who ever lived. There is no one on earth past, present or future that can compare to him. He submitted himself to the will of G-d the father. The Ben Elohim term meant in Hebrew that the person was given a special designation, a special role. He was described this way in the book called “Hebrews” which was specifically written to the Essenes (according to my own understanding after reading and learning about Yohannan haMatbil (המטביל), the Immerser being from the Qumran community). The Essenes were a group of Jews who had rejected the Temple due to it being corrupt. When the Qumran scrolls were discovered, they wrote about a leader called Moreh haTsaddik, the Teacher of Righteousness. They were speaking of Yeshua. Satan is a Persian word meaning the one who causes confusion, the deceiver. It is his job to get us to deviate from Truth. He began to confuse mankind starting with Adam and Eve and is still at it. His task simply was to use man to confuse man and he used Eve to destroy mankind.
Moshe admitted that he lost his opportunity due to his humanity. We can lose our way by following man instead of following G-d. Let us not get lost in trying to define something that does not need to be defined but to accept that our Messiah came as ben Yosef and will return as ben David when all Truth will finally be revealed to us.
May G-d add blessings to His Word!