Sabbath 3-30
Sabbath 3/30/??
Torah
Lev 6:8 - 8:36
Dan's message - head, hands, feet.
Exposed portions of the priest not covered by the consecrated garments.
Ear, thumb, toe.
This week is Shabbat Parah, where it is customary to read the laws of the red heifer in Num 19
-Andy
This is connected to the weeks leading up to Passover, not the Torah portion we are on. However, they are connected.
Parah means Cow
Interesting things about this offering:
It involves the scarlet and hyssop like the cleansing of the leper
The one who burned the heifer was made unclean, but the ashes make one clean.
Sacrifice was performed outside the camp.
According to the Mishnah, the ceremony of the burning of the red heifer took place on the Mount of Olives. A ritually pure kohen slaughtered the heifer and sprinkled its blood in the direction of the Temple seven times. The red heifer was then burned on a pyre, together with crimson dyed wool, hyssop, and cedarwood.
-Wikipedia
19:3 Sacrificed outside the camp.
We've spoken before about the temple institute. If you aren't aware, they have all of the furniture necessary for the temple and have been training priests. They also claim to know where the original ark of the covenant.
As we read, his sacrifice does not take place in the temple. But its only purpose is to purify - to make ritually pure for temple worship.
Now, it's not often that a Torah reading lines up with current events. We've been hearing about the red heifer for a while now. How long have they been trying to get a perfectly red heifer?
Two black hairs disqualifies it according to the rabbis. So, it's been a process.
https://youtu.be/UI7H6J3ZzEo?si=DGCLESdn68EYcLS9
So Hamas knows exactly what it means that the Jews have the red heifer and an altar ready. According to this it was one of the motivations that led to the recent terrorist attacks.
AllIsrael News
“As of now, four of the heifers remain blemish-free and, according to Temple Institute rabbis, they hope to carry out the ceremony before Passover 2024.”
https://allisrael.com/blog/what-do-five-red-heifers-have-to-do-with-the-oct-7-massacre
What does this mean for us?
Well, for one we need to pray. Pray for the salvation of the Jewish people. Pray that God would protect his people and that they would also be bold to speak the truth in Israel and around the world.
In addition to that though, we know what all this is leading to.
2 Thessalonians 2:
2 Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, 2 not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. 3 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of [b]sin is revealed, the son of perdition, 4 who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits [c]as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.
5 Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? 6 And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. 7 For the [d]mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only [e]He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. 9 The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, 10 and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, 12 that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
We’ve seen how serious they are about the rabbinic teaching regarding this
This is from the Mishnah:
“If two hairs of the animal were not red, it was invalid. As a result, the red heifer was rare and costly, and several stories are told in the Talmud about the exorbitant price demanded for it (TJ, Pe'ah 1:1, 15c; Kid. 31a).”
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/red-heifer
There haven't been many of these red heifer sacrificed. The ashes were stored away and only a tiny bit was needed to sprinkle in the water. There is even record that they continued to use the ashes well after the temple was destroyed in 70 AD.
According to the rabbis there were 9 red heifers burned.
This is from Maimonides (Rambam) in Mishneh Torah - “The first was brought by Moses our teacher. The second was brought by Ezra. Seven others were offered until the destruction of the Second Temple. And the tenth will be brought by the king Mashiach; may he speedily be revealed. Amen, so may it be G‑d's will.
(Parah Adummah 3:4)
How serious are they that it has to be a perfect heifer?
The Orthodox Jews are not going to be in favor of rebuilding the temple unless they believe it is the Messiah doing it.
I learned about this from a podcast that was discussing these events. In that podcast he brought to light another fact.
Who has heard of Chabad?
It is “the largest and fastest growing Jewish organization.”
4,900 Chabad-Lubavitch emissary families,
3,500 institutions, in 100 countries and territories, with activities in many more.
About 30 years ago, the finger of the Chabad movement, Rabbi Menachem Schneerson, met with Benjamin Netanyahu, and told him during his first election campaign that he “will be Israel’s prime minister, who will pass the scepter to the Messiah.”
https://www.israeltoday.co.il/read/lubavitcher-rebbe-after-bibi-comes-the-messiah/
Rabbi Yitzhak Kaduri, one of modern Israel’s most revered sages said something similar.
According to Israel Today, “a great many, if not most of the ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel continue to believe that to be true.”
https://www.israeltoday.co.il/read/israeli-rabbi-says-hes-already-holding-meetings-with-messiah/
According to Wikipedia,
“A substantial majority of a highly significant Orthodox movement called … Chabad Hasidism affirms that … Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, who [died in 1994]. . . will soon return to complete the redemption in his capacity as the Messiah.”
Whether or not it's Schneerson himself or someone else, the are many Jewish people that believe Netanyahu is going to be the last PM.
If that happens, what are we calling this person?
This isn't to scare anyone, but it is a call to be ready. Be alert. We've never been this close to Messiah’s return.
- by virtue of the fact that more time has passed
- We have never had this many things in place, ready to go.
11But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. 12Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. 13For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, 14how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? 15And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.
Signs in the heavens.