Torah Teaching for Parsha “Beha’alotecha”

The annual Torah cycle reading for this week is parsha “Beha’alotecha,” (Numbers 8:1-12:16), and it is a true potpourri of events and issues, “from menorah to metzorah.”

Mark Call of Shabbat Shalom Mesa fellowship begins with the Erev Shabbat reading:

As has been so often the case, but ESPECIALLY now, events in the world again set the stage for the midrash this week.

Have you ever noticed that there is a difference in the words used in rendering “do not covet…” your neighbors’ wife, house, and so on between the two repetitions of the “Ten Commandments?” The words used for ‘covet,” or “lust for,” are different (the Hebrew root is ;chamad’the first time, but ‘avah‘ in Deuteronomy 5:21.) And THAT word is used for those who died b’midbar – in the wilderness – as a result of their lusting for ‘meat.’

The connection, as Mark lays out, may well be that so many today are literally “lusting for death.” And it is a ‘temptation’ that YHVH has given us all the information we need to avoid, along with a means to escape.

Beha’alotecha: “From Menorah to Metzorah then – Lusting for DEATH now”

The combined two-part reading and Sabbath midrash:

About mark

Semi-retired electronic engineer, turned author and lecturer; occasional radio talk show host, and motivated Torah/Bible teacher. Also an avid private pilot (Private, ASEL, Inst), radio amateur, scuba diver, and aspiring sailor.
This entry was posted in Come out of her...., Food - and NOT 'food', Idolatry, prophecy, torah and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.