Bamidbar / Num. 4:21-7:89
Haftarah: Judges 13:2-25
Brit Hadashah: Luke 1:11-20
Naso means “get up“
Parshah Summary
Chapter 4 tells us that when the count of the Children of Israel was completed in the Sinai Desert, there were a total of 8,580 Levites, men between 30 and 50 years old who were counted to be those who would transport the Tabernacle.
Chapter 5 begins by talking about the purity of the Temple and HaShem orders the Israelites to expel from the camp anyone who has a skin infection, suffers from a venereal discharge, or has been left ritually unclean by touching a corpse.
HaShem ordered Moshe to tell the Israelites, that the man or woman who sins against their neighbor, betrays HaShem and will have to answer for it, that is, pay the injured person compensation for the damage caused.
He also teaches Moshe the laws of the Sotah, a wife suspected of having been unfaithful to her husband. (5:11-31)
Chapter 6 tells us about the Nazir’s law that promises not to drink wine, lets his hair grow, and is forbidden to ritually defile himself with the impurity of a dead person.
In this chapter also Aharon and his descendants, the Kohanim, are instructed on how to bless the children of Israel.
Ceremony
Bircat kohanim is only recited in the presence of a minimum of ten males including the Kohen and is performed as follows: the kohanim take off their shoes, go up to the hejal hakodesh, the place where the Torah scrolls are kept.
They cover the head and body with the tallit, raising their hands to shoulder height, palms facing the ground, the right slightly higher than the left.
On both hands, separate the middle finger from the ring finger and the index finger from the thumb, leaving the other fingers together.
In this way, the hands divide the space into five parts: four spaces between the separated fingers of the two hands, and one space between the two hands, a total of five.
The chazan, the singer, calls them, and then they pronounce the bracha, the blessing:
“…asher kideshanu bikdusható shel Aharón vetsivanu levarej et amó Israel…”,
“…who has sanctified us with the holiness of Aharon and has commanded us to bless his people Israel…”.
They then circle back to town and complete the last word of the bracha:
“…beahavá”, “…with love”.
The Kohen blessing includes the three Torah verses (Numbers 6:24, 25, 26) mentioned above:
“Yevarejejá Adonay veyishmereja.
Yaer Adonay panav eleija vijuneka.
Yisá Adonay panav eleija veyasem lejá shalom.”
The chazan slowly recites these verses word for word, and the kohanim repeat each word.
Each word is to be recited by all the kohanim in unison and to the same tune.
At the end of each verse, the assembly responds Amein.
The chazan must not respond.
At the end of the blessing, when the chazan begins to say, “sim shalom”, the kohanim turn back to the “hechal hakodesh” and remain in this position until the end of the “berach”:
“hamevarej et amó Israel bashalom Amén”.
And this week’s parashah ends by saying in the full chapter 7, that the leaders of the twelve tribes of Israel must bring their offerings for the inauguration of the altar.
Although their offerings are identical, each one is brought on a different day and is individually described by the Torah (89 verses).
Comment
The Bible is a book that is not only to be read.
It is a book to be studied, to be applied to your life.
Otherwise, it’s like swallowing a mouthful of food without chewing it and then spitting it out again … without any nutritional value taken advantage of.
The Bible is the Word of God.
As such, it is as necessary as the laws of nature.
You can ignore it, but you will ignore it, just as it would be if you ignored the law of gravity.
Studying the Bible can be compared to extracting gold from a mine.
If you make a small effort and only “bud the baskets in the stream” you will only find a little bit of gold dust.
But if you strive to really “dig into it,” your reward will be according to your great effort.
Bamidbar / Num. 5:11-31
The Bitter Waters and The Zeal Laws
This Chapter Tells Us about Reconciliation between Man and Woman.
How do we reconcile with our spouses?
Bamidbar/Num. 5: 11-31
11 And Adonai spoke unto Moshe, saying,
דַּבֵּר אֶל־בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְאָמַרְתָּ אֲלֵהֶם אִישׁ אִישׁ כִּֽי־תִשְׂטֶה אִשְׁתֹּו וּמָעֲלָה בֹו מָֽעַל׃
Daber el-bney Yisra’el ve’amarta alehem ish ish ki-tisteh ishto uma’alah vo ma’al.
12 “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘If a man’s wife goes astray and is unfaithful to him
4604. lam ma`al,/ Sin, falsehood, transgression,
13 so that another man has sexual relations with her, and this is hidden from her husband and her impurity is undetected (since there is no witness against her and she has not been caught in the act),
14 and if feelings of jealousy come over her husband and he suspects his wife and she is impure—or if he is jealous and suspects her even though she is not impure;
Why is HaShem Jealous?
Shemot / Ex. 20:3-5
3 “You shall have no other elohim before me.
4 “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.
5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Adonai your Elohim, am a jealous Elohim, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,
Bamidbar / Num. 5:15
15 then he is to take his wife to the Kohen. He must also take an offering of a tenth of an ephah of barley flour on her behalf. He must not pour olive oil on it or put incense on it because it is a grain offering for jealousy, a reminder offering to draw attention to wrongdoing.
16 “‘The Kohenshall bring her and have her stand before HaShem.
Flour = typifies the Word
La mujer = tipología de Yisrael / The woman = typology of Yisrael
El Esposo = Es Yeshua / The Husband = Is Yeshua
Bamidbar/Num. 5:17
17 luego tomará agua santa en una vasija de barro. Tomará también del polvo que está en el suelo del tabernáculo y lo echará en el agua.
17 Then he shall take some holy water in a clay jar and put some dust from the tabernacle floor into the water.
Yohanán / John 8:1-12
The woman caught in adultery
18 After the Kohenhas had the woman stand before HaShem, he shall loosen her hair and place in her hands the reminder-offering, the grain offering for jealousy, while he himself holds the bitter water that brings a curse.
19 Then the Kohenshall put the woman under oath and say to her, “If no other man has had sexual relations with you and you have not gone astray and become impure while married to your husband, may this bitter water that brings a curse not harm you.
20 But if you have gone astray while married to your husband and you have made yourself impure by having sexual relations with a man other than your husband”;
21 here the Kohenis to put the woman under this curse— “may HaShemcause you to become a curse among your people when he makes your womb miscarry and your abdomen swell.
Shemot/Ex. 32:20
20 And he took the calf the people had made and burned it in the fire; then he ground it to powder, scattered it on the water, and made the Israelites drink it.
Devarim / Deut. 9:21
21 Also I took that sinful thing of yours, the calf you had made, and burned it in the fire. Then I crushed it and ground it to powder as fine as dust and threw the dust into a stream that flowed down the mountain.
Bamidbar / Num. 5:22
22 May this water that brings a curse enter your body so that your abdomen swells or your womb miscarries.” “‘Then the woman is to say, “Amen. So be it.”
First time the word Amen is used in the TORAH
23 “‘The Kohenis to write these curses on a scroll and then wash them off into the bitter water.
24 He shall make the woman drink the bitter water that brings a curse, and this water that brings a curse and causes bitter suffering will enter her.
Blessings and Curses
Vayikrah / Lev. 26 y Devarim / Deut. 28
25 The Kohenis to take from her hands the grain offering for jealousy, wave it before HaShemand bring it to the altar.
26 The priest is then to take a handful of the grain offering as a memorial offering and burn it on the altar; after that, he is to have the woman drink the water.
27 If she has made herself impure and been unfaithful to her husband, this will be the result: When she is made to drink the water that brings a curse and causes bitter suffering, it will enter her, her abdomen will swell and her womb will miscarry, and she will become a curse.
28 If, however, the woman has not made herself impure but is clean, she will be cleared of guilt and will be able to have children.
29 “‘This, then, is the law of jealousy when a woman goes astray and makes herself impure while married to her husband,
30 “or when feelings of jealousy come over a man because he suspects his wife. The Kohenis to have her stand before HaShem and is to apply this entire law to her.
31 The husband will be innocent of any wrongdoing, but the woman will bear the consequences of her sin.’”
Laws of jealousy
Why is there no law regarding women’s jealousy?
Why could not the woman be unfaithful?
What happened if the woman was unfaithful to a foreigner?
What happened if the woman was unfaithful to one of the same tribes?
Revelation of this Story
HaShem has a plan for His people
To make the puzzle
The zeal of HaShem and His people “The Bride“, Yisrael
1. Barley offering(v.15)
The feast of Shavuot
With leaven (Sin)
Represents Yisrael mixed among the nations (Goyim, Gentiles)
The contaminated wife, adulteress, “Gomer“
2. Dust (v.17)
Tells us about the generation of Avraham
He speaks of Yisrael as “dust” among the nations
Sanctuary dust
Yisrael is called to be a nation of priests
3. Curses (v.23)
The Kohen wrote those curses in a Sefer / roll.
They may be the curses of Devarim’s book
He says that the ink was diluted in the water and given to the woman to drink, that is, he drank those curses.
The Jewish tradition adds something more; the sacred name of HaShem. YHVH.
That is, the curses written on the parchment, next to the sacred name, diluted in the water, are given to drink to the adulterous woman and produced this punishment of the woman’s belly swelling and loosening her thigh.
Reconciliation
That is the level of importance that HaShem gives to Reconciliation.
HaShem is so interested in peace in the home (Beit shalom), and reconciliation, that He is willing, if necessary, to “erase” His name, which is the most sacred thing that exists, to count on the accomplishment of the matrimonial reconciliation.
The name of HaShem being erased in an adulterous woman to bring reconciliation.
Now, if the woman was innocent, she became more fertile, she would reproduce many children.
Think of this!
YHVH יהוה
It will have some relation, or it is a coincidence, that being Yeshua on the cross, on top of Him put on the sign the phrase (written in three languages: Greek, Latin, and Hebrew)?
Yeshúa Hanotzri Vemelech Hayehudim
What did the Jews saw on that sign that they asked Pilate to remove that sign?
Why is יהוה not in crosses and only INRI appears?
Because the name was deleted in exile, in the adulterous woman, for reconciliation.
The jealous husband went into exile with the Yisrael people, and his name was erased if they were reconciled by Him.
4. Water
“I’m thirsty”
Is the story of the jealous man in our parashah a coincidence?
What kind of drink did they give him?
After that drink, he said: “consummate is” (from the verb “gomer“, the adulteress).
Yeshúa
He is the offering of barley for sin.
And the drink that the adulterous woman should drink, He drinks it for her.
And once he takes it, he says “it is finished”.
“I paid the offering for you.”
He became sin for sinners.
If He was innocent?
What would happen if the woman was innocent?
Yeshua was innocent.
It would produce Fertility.
Tehillim / Psalm 22:6ª
“I am a worm and not a man …”
This was a worm that must die to reproduce.
It grows in the trunk of the trees and begins to inflate until it explodes and leaves a red spot where it explodes.
This is where the purple color is extracted to dye the purple fabrics.
From that red spot came more worms.
And then with time, that stain left on the tree became white.
Yeshua Innocent
Being innocent, he dies for the adulterous woman and produces many children.
The just for the unjust.
“If your sin were red like crimson, it will make you whiter than white snow” (Isa.1: 18).
Is not all this a plan well-orchestrated by HaShem that created us and knows us?
Johnn 8:1-12
1 and Yeshua went to the Mount of Olives.
2 And in the morning, he returned to the temple, and all the people came to him, and sitting him, he taught them.
3 Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought him a woman caught in adultery; and putting it in the middle,
4 they said to him: Teacher / Rabbi, this woman has been caught in the very act of adultery.
5 And in the law / TorahMoshe ordered us to stone such women. You, then, what do you say?
6 But this they said, tempting him, that he might accuse him. But Yeshua, leaning to the ground, wrote on the ground with his finger.
7 And when they insisted on asking him, he straightened up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you must be the first to throw the stone at her.”
8 And leaning back to the ground, he continued writing on the ground.
9 But when they heard this, accused by their conscience, they went out one by one, beginning from the oldest to the last; and Yeshua was left alone, and the woman who was in the middle.
10 When Yeshua stood up and saw no one but the woman, he said to her, “Woman, where are the accusers? Did not anyone condemn you?
11 She said: None, Adon. Then Yeshua said to him, “Neither do I condemn you; Go away and sin no more.
Jeremiah 17:13
Oh Adonai, hope of Yisrael! all who leave you will be ashamed; and those who turn away from me will be written in the dust, because they left HaShem, a spring of living waters.
Romans7:1-3
End of Impact
יהוה Your Name Deleted
The connection of the name erased in our times and its importance.
Replaced by some letters in Greek, INRI.
Today, in the town of Yisrael, Yeshua is called, Yeshu.
What does Yeshu mean in the Hebrew context?
“Yimach shmo” = “your name is deleted”.
Do not allow His name to be blotted out.
Yeshua the Messiah, King of Yisrael, King of the Universe.
Shabbat Shalom Mishpochah!