Insights
By Rabbi Dr. Hillel ben David (Greg Killian)
In this paper I want to just keep track of various insights that we have derived in our Beit Midrash. These insights are not meant to be cohesive or related, merely standalone insights. There may be some standalone studies derived, eventually, from these insights.
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Colosians 2:16-17 Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath: 17 Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body of Mashiach.
His Eminence Hakham Dr. Yosef ben Haggai has taught us to view the above pasuk according to its proper gramatical structure:
Colosians 2:16-17 Let no man therefore judge you … but the body of Mashiach.
This rendition suggests that Israel (Jews) should judge the Nazarean in respect to all of the things mentioned, though no one else is allowed to judge,
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“Abra cidabra” in Aramaic (the language the Talmud and Zohar is written
in) means “I will create as I speak.” In Jewish tradition there is the idea of actually creating
things by saying certain combinations of the Hebrew letters, which contain creative powers. These secrets are contained in the book Sefer Yetzirah. (The
golem of Prague, for example, was created in such a way by Rabbi Judah Lowe, known as the Maharal.)
It is possible that abracadabra originates from this tradition.
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Daniel 9:25-27 Know therefore and understand, [that] from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince [shall be] seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof [shall be] with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make [it] desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
In Daniel there "... confirm the covenant with the many....". The word "many" is incorrect. There will be a covenant with many Rabbis (letterally great ones). The word in Hebrew is: L'rabin which means "with the great Ones" or "with the Rabbis". This will be a covenant with the Orthodox Jewish leaders! This puts the lie to the 1993 hadshake on the Whitehouse lawn as the covenant spoken of by Daniel. That can not be because it does not go along with the simple meaning of the text!
I learned this from my teacher, Hakham Dr. Yoseph ben Haggi.
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Well that 1) prices of oil are to increase, 2) that it looks like we will be having oil company cartels 3) That in the book of Daniel it is said that the Anti-Mashich will gain control of the fatness (Hebrew = Shemen = Oil) in the Middle East in order to introduce a new economic order, and it looks like there is some movement towards that as can be gleaned in that article, where it states that oil exploration is virtually at a stand still, sine many of the gelogical expert are leaving the industry.
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Daniel 9:25 Know therefore and understand, [that] from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince [shall be] seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.
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5057 nagiyd, naw-gheed'; or nagid, naw-gheed'; from 5046; a commander (as occupying the front), civil, military or religious; gen. (abstr. plur.), honorable themes:-captain, chief, excellent thing, (chief) governor, leader, noble, prince, (chief) ruler.
------------------ Dictionary Trace --------------
5046 nagad, naw-gad'; a prim. root; prop. to front, i.e. stand boldly out opposite; by impl. (causat.), to manifest; fig. to announce (always by word of mouth to one present); spec. to expose, predict, explain, praise:-bewray, X certainly, certify, declare (-ing), denounce, expound, X fully, messenger, plainly, profess, rehearse, report, shew (forth), speak, X surely, tell, utter.
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Call upon the name of HaShem = Start a Jewish prayer service.
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Someone once asked, "Who had the heavier load, the Merari, the Kohati, or the Gershoni?" (Merari, Gershon, and Kohat were the three sons of Levi who were responsible for carrying the Mishkan (the Sanctuary in the wilderness). The Talmud poses a very interesting answer to this question:
When[1] the last of the Israelites ascended from the Jordan, the waters returned to their place; as it is said: And it came to pass, when the priests that bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord were come up out of the midst of the Jordan, and the soles of the priests’ feet were lifted up unto the dry ground, that the waters of Jordan returned unto their place, and went over all its banks, as aforetime.[2] Consequently the ark and its bearers and the priests were on one side [of the Jordan] and the Israelites on the other![3] The ark carried its bearers and passed over [the river]; as it is said: And it came to pass, when all the people were clean passed over, that the ark of the Lord passed over, and the priests, in the presence of the people.[4] On that account was Uzza punished, as it is said: And when they came unto the threshing-floor of Chidon, Uzza put forth his hand to hold the ark.[5] The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him, ‘Uzza, [the ark] carried its bearers; must it not all the more [be able to carry] itself!’ Talmud - Sotah 35a
The answer to my question, then, is that there is a reasonable possibility that the Merarai, Gershoni, and Kahati were carried and therefore their "burdens" were all equal. This is all the more probable when we consider what Messiah said:
Matthew 11:28-30 "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
So, what seems bizarre, i.e. that the ark carried the Levites, turns out to be a perfect example of Messiah's burden. Remember that the Torah and Messiah are the same entity and, therefore, the ark had the tablets of stone which represent the Torah. Lets see how we know that Torah and Messiah are the same entity:
Genesis 3:20-24 Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living. HaShem God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. And HaShem God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever." So HaShem God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.
So, in Bereshit, HaShem says that men would live forever if they eat from the tree of life. This is the first reference to eternal life, in the scriptures. Lets look again to see if there are any other ways to have eternal life:
Deuteronomy 4:39-40 Acknowledge and take to heart this day that HaShem is God in heaven above and on the earth below. There is no other. Keep His decrees and commands, which I am giving you today, so that it may go well with you and your children after you and that you may live long in the land HaShem your God gives you for all time.
The above passage seems to be saying that you can live forever by keeping the commands and decrees of HaShem. Lest we have any doubt lets try to confirm this from another passage:
Ezekiel 20:10-13 Therefore I led them out of Egypt and brought them into the desert. I gave them my decrees and made known to them my laws, for the man who obeys them will live by them. Also I gave them my Sabbaths as a sign between us, so they would know that I HaShem made them holy. "'Yet the people of Israel rebelled against me in the desert. They did not follow my decrees but rejected my laws--although the man who obeys them will live by them--and they utterly desecrated my Sabbaths. So I said I would pour out my wrath on them and destroy them in the desert.
Ezekiel never comes right out and calls it eternal life, but, it is obvious that the way to live is through the commands of HaShem. This life is different than what the wicked do when they walk and breathe. The wicked do not live like the righteous. The only difference must be in how long they live. Lets look at one more passage to make this point clear:
Matthew 19:15-17 When he had placed his hands on them, he went on from there. Now a man came up to Yeshua and asked, "Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?" "Why do you ask me about what is good?" Yeshua replied. "There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments."
and
Mark 10:17-23 As Yeshua started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. "Good teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" "Why do you call me good?" Yeshua answered. "No one is good--except God alone. You know the commandments: 'Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.'" "Teacher," he declared, "all these I have kept since I was a boy." Yeshua looked at him and loved him. "One thing you lack," he said. "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." At this the man's face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth. Yeshua looked around and said to his disciples, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!"
and
Luke 10:25-28 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Yeshua. "Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" "What is written in the Law?" he replied. "How do you read it?" He answered: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' " "You have answered correctly," Yeshua replied. "Do this and you will live."
The second way to live forever is to obey the commands of HaShem. By obeying Torah we inherit eternal life. Lets look, now, at a third way to live forever:
John 6:43-51 "Stop grumbling among yourselves," Yeshua answered. "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the Prophets: 'They will all be taught by God.' Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me. No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life. I am the bread of life. Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."
The next way to live forever is to eat of the Bread from Heaven. Yeshua is obviously The Bread from Heaven. The second way to live forever is to eat of this Living bread. This Living Bread is clarified in:
John 3:10-16 "You are Israel's teacher," said Yeshua, "and do you not understand these things? I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven--the Son of Man. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, That everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
The third way to live forever involves believing in the Son of God. This third way is described, repeatedly, throughout the scriptures, in various ways. They all boil down to faith in Messiah.
Let's summarize the methods, used by God and described in His scriptures, for obtaining eternal life:
1. Eat from the Tree of Life.
2. Obey the commands of God.
3. Believe in the Son of God.
These three ways to live forever are all clearly spelled out in the Bible, yet there is a problem. Lets look at the problem:
John 14:6 Yeshua answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Messiah seems to be saying that there is ONLY ONE way to life and that is through Yeshua. Yet, we have already seen that there are clearly three ways to live forever. How do we resolve this? Proverbs puts all three of these together:
Proverbs 3:13-20 Blessed is the man who finds wisdom, the man who gains understanding, For she is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold. She is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire can compare with her. Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor. Her ways are pleasant ways, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to those who embrace her; those who lay hold of her will be blessed. By wisdom HaShem laid the earth's foundations, by understanding he set the heavens in place; By his knowledge the deeps were divided, and the clouds let drop the dew.
The above passage is read, in the synagogue, when the Torah scroll is returned to the ark. When we say this, we agree that the ultimate wisdom is Torah. This passage shows that whoever created the world is Torah and is the Tree of life. So, the Tree of Life, the Torah, and Yeshua are all the same entity. Yeshua must be the Tree of Life. Yeshua must be the Torah. Yeshua is THE way and THE truth and THE life!
This has profound implications for the believer today. It means that we must obey all of God's commands in the Torah or we will, in effect, be discarding a part of Yeshua. It means that if we make a distinction between the laws of God that we must obey and those that we don't have to obey, that we must somehow believe in part of Yeshua and not in all of Him. This does not work! Just as Yeshua is a single entity, so also is the Torah a single entity. We can not divide the commands of God anymore than we can divide the body of Messiah. We either obey all of the Torah or we have rejected Messiah.
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The next insight we have had is the relationship between Messiah and Melchizedek. Lets start by examining who Melchizedek is.
R. Zechariah said on R. Ishmael's authority: The Holy One, blessed be He, intended to bring forth the priesthood from Shem, as it is written, And he [sc. Melchizedek] was the priest of the most high God.[6] But because he gave precedence in his blessing to Abraham over God, He brought it forth from Abraham; as it is written, And he blessed him and said. Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth, and blessed be the most high God.[7] Said Abraham to him, ‘Is the blessing of a servant to be given precedence over that of his master?’ Straightway it [the priesthood] was given to Abraham, as it is written, The Lord said unto my Lord,[8] Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool;[9] which is followed by, The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever, after the order of Melchizedek,’[10] meaning, ‘because of the words of Melchizedek.’[11] Hence it is written, And he was a priest of the most High God, [implying that] he was a priest, but not his seed.[12] Talmud - Nedarim 32b
The Above Talmudic quote shows that the sages understood that Melchizedek and Shem, the son of Noah, are the same person. Armed with this tidbit, be can see that Yeshua's genealogy as recorded by Matthew, in chapter one, and Luke in chapter three[13], is derived from Shem:
1 Adam, the son of God.
(God talked to Adam and then was silent for ten generations.)
2 Seth, the son of Adam
3 Enosh, the son of Seth
4 Kenan, The son of Enosh
5 Mahalalel, the son of Kenan
6 Jared, the son of Mahalalel
7 Enoch, the son of Jared
8 Methuselah, the son of Enoch
9 Lamech, The son of Methuselah
10 Noah, the son of Lamech
(God talked to Noah and then was silent for ten generations.)
11 Shem, the son of Noah
12 Arphaxad, the son of Shem
13 Cainan, the son of Arphaxad
14 Shelah, The son of Cainan
15 Eber, the son of Shelah
16 Peleg, the son of Eber
17 Reu, the son of Peleg
18 Serug, the son of Reu
19 Nahor, The son of Serug
20 Terah, the son of Nahor
21 ... Abraham, the son of Terah
(God talked to Abraham)
A record of the genealogy of Yeshua Mashiach the son of David, the son of Abraham:
21 Abraham was the father of Isaac,
23 Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers,
24 Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose
mother was Tamar,
25 Perez the father of Hezron,
26 Hezron the father of Ram,
27 Ram the father of Amminadab,
28 Amminadab the father of Nahshon,
29 Nahshon the father of Salmon,
30 Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother
was Rahab,
31 Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother
was Ruth,
32 Obed the father of Jesse,
33 And Jesse the father of King David.
34 David was the father of Solomon, whose
mother had been Uriah's wife,
35 Solomon the father of Rehoboam,
36 Rehoboam the father of Abijah,
37 Abijah the father of Asa,
38 Asa the father of Jehoshaphat,
39 Jehoshaphat the father of Jehoram,
40 Jehoram the father of Uzziah,
41 Uzziah the father of Jotham,
42 Jotham the father of Ahaz,
43 Ahaz the father of Hezekiah,
44 Hezekiah the father of Manasseh,
45 Manasseh the father of Amon,
46 Amon the father of Josiah,
47 And Josiah the father of Jeconiah and his
brothers at the time of the exile to
Babylon. After the exile to Babylon:
Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel,
49 Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel,
50 Zerubbabel the father of Abiud,
51 Abiud the father of Eliakim,
52 Eliakim the father of Azor,
53 Azor the father of Zadok,
54 Zadok the father of Akim,
55 Akim the father of Eliud,
56 Eliud the father of Eleazar,
57 Eleazar the father of Matthan,
58 Matthan the father of Jacob,
59 And Jacob the father of
60 Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born
61 Yeshua, who is called Mashiach.
Now that we know Melchizedek and Shem are the same person and that Yeshua is descended from Melchizedek / Shem, we can now better understand:
Hebrews 5:5-10 So Mashiach also did not take upon himself the glory of becoming a high priest. But God said to him, "You are my Son; today I have become your Father." And he says in another place, "You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek." During the days of Yeshua' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered And, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him And was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek.
So, Yeshua the Messiah had a right to be a priest in the order of Melchizedek because Yeshua descended from Melchizedek. We also know that all priests inherit their service.
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Colosians 3:11 Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Mashiach is all, and is in all.
So, who exactly are the Scythians that they can be compared to Jew and free? My guess is that it relates to the ten tribes which went into captivity in Assyria and never returned.
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According to: “The Pentateuch”, by S.R. Hirsch:
In Numbers 5:11ff, the woman could only be brought to the priest after she had been ALONE with a male long enough to have committed adultery, and she had been warned not to do it, and she did it a second time, and there was at least one witness. She would not be forced to drink the water if she were guilty. She merely needs to repent. It is only when she does not admit guilt that she drinks the water.
The Haftarah, Hosea 4:1-19, indicates that nothing would happen to her if her husband is also guilty of adultery.
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If you examine the rules for the nazir in Numbers 6, you will discover a significant relationship to the kohanim, the priests:
grapes
dead bodies
From this data it is reasonable to assume that the nazir should also be teaching Torah.
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What she could imagine even less is that Osnas was born to Dina from her being raped by Shechem. Dina was the 7th child of Leah. Leah's 7th child was supposed to be Yoseph himself! After becoming pregnant, again, while Rachel was still barren, Leah prayed her child would be a girl so Rachel might give birth to two of the tribes. Leah's prayers were answered affirmatively by HaShem and Yoseph was changed to Dina. Shechem, though the name of a slime-ball, is also the name of the city in which he lived which is located in the portion of Israel destined for Yoseph's descendants (and where Yoseph and his sons, Ephraim and Menashe, are buried). All this came together under the roof of Potiphar, the butcher, and his wife. If anyone has any ideas on what they did to deserve that I would love to hear it.
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This study was written by
Rabbi Dr. Hillel ben David
(Greg Killian).
Comments may be submitted to:
Rabbi Dr. Greg Killian
12210 Luckey Summit
San Antonio, TX 78252
Internet address: gkilli@aol.com
Web page: http://www.betemunah.org/
(360) 918-2905
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[1] After this long digression there is resumed the narrative of the crossing of the Jordan.
[2] Josh. IV, 18
[3] The text is understood in the same sense that the priests who carried the ark dipped their feet in the Jordan and the waters remained parted so long as the feet were kept there. When the Israelites had crossed, the priests lifted their feet out of the water, stepping back upon the bank. They were consequently on the other side; so how did they get over?
[4] Ibid. 11. Note that the ark ‘passed over’, and was not carried over.
[5] I Chron. XIII, 9.
[7] Ibid. 19f.
[8] Here taken as referring to Abraham; cf. Ber. 7b, where my lord is explicitly so explained.
[9] Ps. CX, 1.
[10] Ibid. CX, 4.
[11] I.e., because of his giving precedence to Abraham.
[12] Though Abraham was a descendant of Melchizedek, and thus the priesthood was inherited by the latter's seed, yet this was through the merit of Abraham, not of Melchizedek. — Ran.
[13] The ten generations are also in Avoth chapter 5, mishna 2.