Torah Pearls #24 – Vayikra (Leviticus 1:1-5:26)

In this episode of The Original Torah Pearls, Vayikra (Leviticus 1:1-5:26), we share our recommendations of English translations and how to use them responsibly. What is really going when we see Leviticus chapter 5 ending with verse 19 in the gentile translations, while in the Hebrew and Jewish translations it ends with verse 26. We review the five primary types of sacrifices, which correspond to the first five chapters of the book Leviticus. We discuss whether there is atonement and forgiveness without blood. What “to lean his hand” means.  Whether if you sin can you just bring a sacrifice and receive atonement. What fats we are and aren’t we allowed to eat. The difference between intentional and unintentional sin. If one becomes unclean, have they done something which makes them guilty? Are we really expected to ring the neck of the bird? And so much more.

Looking forward to reading your comments! Download Torah Pearls Vayikra Transcript
Torah Pearls #24 – Vayikra (Leviticus 1:1-5:26)

You are listening to The Original Torah Pearls with Nehemia Gordon, Keith Johnson, and Jono Vandor. Thank you for supporting Nehemia Gordon's Makor Hebrew Foundation. Learn more at NehemiasWall.com.

Jono: G'day to Sandra in South Carolina, Marilyn in Alberta, Canada, Maria in Florida, Esther in Victoria, Australia, Janis in Indiana, and wherever you may be around the world, it is good to have your company. G'day also to Janet, who left a comment saying, "Thank you so much for these studies. They are confirming and solidifying so many things for me in the scriptures.” Kimberly writes, "Thank you, brothers, for these discussions. I'm so blessed by them in so many ways." And Chris, who also commented, asking, "What Hebrew bible do you guys prefer? Is there a particular version that I should be looking for? Also, is there a parallel Hebrew bible with English translation next to it?" There is a question. It's time for the Torah Pearls, obviously. Pearls from the Torah Portion with Keith Johnson and Nehemia Gordon. G'day, fellas.

Nehemia: Hey. G'day, Jono. I'm also doing a shout-out to Marlin in Shillong, India. Thank you for sharing the Torah Pearls.

Jono: Neat.

Keith: Yes. And good day to Andrea in Minnesota. Thanks for listening.

Nehemia: Wait, what? That’s his wife.

Jono: You were caught by surprise, weren't you, Keith?

Keith: Oh, my goodness. That's Nehemia, he just won't let me get away with anything.

Jono: Good day, Mrs. Johnson.

Nehemia: Before we get started, I actually had some complaints from some listeners, and this is…

Jono: We've got a complaint?

Nehemia: And this isn't a joke. In all seriousness. One of the comments I had from some of the listeners is that there's a lot of people on this program, and we won't name names -- [coughs] Keith [coughs] Keith. We won't name names, who interrupt others when they're talking and speak over them. No names are being named [coughs] Keith. But this is something we should be aware of and try to be more careful with not interrupting when other are speaking, okay?

Keith: Yes.

Jono: Do you know anything about that, Keith?

Nehemia: And look, this is not part of the Israeli culture to interrupt others when they're speaking. So, I have no…they obviously couldn't be referring to me. So...

Jono: Really?

Keith: We'll make sure that we take…extra careful. Yeah, I want to be extra careful about that.

Jono: Oh, sorry. Was I talking...say it again.

Nehemia: …and comments from this particular person...this is very reminiscent to conference calls that we actually have with myself, Keith, and this other person…interruption going on. Anyway, let's just try to...

Jono: Try not to do that.

Keith: I'll try.

Jono: No, listen. Actually... Keith, seriously.

Nehemia: Don't talk over other people when they're talking. Go ahead.

Jono: Keith.

Keith: Yes.

Jono: As far as Hebrew bibles are concerned... Now, listen. I asked you this very question. You recommended to me a bible by Zondervan, a reader's Hebrew bible. This is the one you use, right?

Keith: No, no, no. Actually, that is an English translation. It's called a Keyword Study Bible. If someone was interested in a Hebrew bible with English translation, I do recommend the Tanak. It's T. T as in T, Torah, A, N as in N, like Nancy, A, and K. And what I like about that…my son actually has that. And what's nice about that is it's purely the Hebrew bible. It has an English translation side by side. But for a person who kind of knows a few things, a little bit, here and there, and they want to see a Hebrew word, they can. What I like about the Hebrew Keyword Study Bible by Zondervan is that they take probably about 35% of the words that are in the English bible, they link them to Hebrew words in the Tanak, where you can go in and see those. You can't look at that like a lexicon or anything like that, but it really is nice for people who are just at the very beginning, that want to say, "Okay, in my English bible there's a little number that says...okay, let me go into the back of my bible and see what that word is." And then, they can do further study.

But the best, obviously, is to be able to have a Hebrew bible where you can kind of see what the actual English words are. One other suggestion for those that are reading a little bit of Hebrew...one of the things that I did get is called a Reader's Hebrew Bible. And what's nice about this particular bible…it's all Hebrew, but it does have some of the more uncommon words down at the bottom. So, if a person is able to read Hebrew and wants to do better and make it more part of their devotional, spiritual study life, it's a great companion. This is what I use now when I go in to speak. Because a lot of it I'm not able to just open it up and translate it, but maybe to be able to read the words and not translate it. This helps with some issues of translation. Ultimately, you need to have yourself a Nehemia Gordon. I'll be honest with you. This guy, when he's willing…

Jono: Yes.

Keith: You're able to have someone that you could talk to about it and sharpen one another.

Jono: Amen. Amen. And Nehemia, you have made reference a couple of times now to Everret Fox and the Schocken Torah. Can you just fill us in on that?

Nehemia: I was talking to myself for a moment…what are we talking about?

Jono: The Schocken…you've made a couple of references to Everret Fox and that translation. Can you just fill everybody in with…

Nehemia: That's one of a number of translations. All joking aside, the translation the you're required to use if you care about your salvation and your internal soul is the Nehemia Gordon personal theology version. Get it at Amazon.com., $49.95. Actually, I should do a translation like that and call it "The Nehemia Gordon Personal Theology Translation". No, there is no such translation.

So, look. What I recommend to do is, if you don't know Hebrew, look at least two translations, more if you can, and compare them, and see what the differences are. That's a good point to start. Those are good points to then look up and try to study more what is the Hebrew behind these differences. It doesn't mean, when they agree, that there's no problem because a lot of times what happens is one translator will copy from another translator, and then tweak it. That's basically going back to Tyndale and, what is it, like the 14th Century? All the translations are pretty much copied off of him. So, the Schocken Bible is another translation. It's good. It has some good things.

But like I said, no translation is perfect. Anybody who tells you that this is the translation which is the original actual words that were spoken thousands of years ago, they probably don't know that much Hebrew. They really don't know what they're talking about. What we have to do is really compare translations. That's my recommendation. But then there are some notoriously bad translations. Like the NIV, what Keith calls the "Nearly Inspired Version" - the "New International Version". It doesn't mean it's useless. There are some places where all the other translations miss it and the NIV happens to be the only one who, despite themselves, gets it. That happens, you know. But there are other places where it's just…I like the word egregious, which means it's not just a little bit off or they're paraphrasing. It's almost like sometimes they'll translate the exact opposite of what it says in the original, which is why whenever I'll quote one of those translations I look to see. "Okay, this is what it says in the original." And if it's at least reasonably close enough then I may quote it.

Another translation which is almost comically egregious, taking liberties, is the Stone Edition, also known as The Artscroll Bible. There's one section there in Song of Songs where they actually don't translate what it says in the Hebrew. They give you their interpretation in the body of the translation. And the literal translation is on the bottom. They take all Song of Songs to be…Song of Solomon to be an allegory. They interpret the allegory to refer to. And it very well may be an allegory, but at least give the people the respect that they can figure it out for themselves. Or at least let them know what it literally says, and then you can tell them the interpretation. There's one section there, I kid you not, where they actually talk about the written Torah; the written law and the oral law, in the body of the translation, because that's what they interpret this metaphor or allegory in Songs of Songs to refer to.

And look, there are other places where all the translations got it wrong except for the Stone Edition. I mean, there is no such thing as “Well, it’s a bad translation, so we shouldn't look at it.” I guess there probably is such a thing, but generally, somebody who's trying to translate well will get it right probably most of time. But then there will be time when they completely get it wrong. So, I don't know that there's one translation that you could…there isn't one translation that you can…there is no such thing. It doesn't exist, one translation you can trust.

Jono: So, having obviously, as you've mentioned, two or three translations...one of them being at least the Hebrew and having some basic knowledge...at least some basic knowledge on reading Hebrew, some tools there, obviously really pays, as we're finding out in these Torah Pearls. I mean, Keith...Keith loves my new King James Version.

Keith: Absolutely. Yeah. I just want to know if you can get the accent with it.

Jono: You can get one with the accent. Now, today we are in…

Nehemia: Oh, the Australian accent.

Jono: …Vayikra, right? We're in Leviticus, Vayikra.

Keith: Yeah.

Jono: Verse 1:1-5:26. Now, I've got a problem already. Keith, it goes to 5:26. Now, as great as my bible is, and maybe it's different in the Nearly Inspired Version, my bible only goes up to 5:19. I don't have 26 verses in chapter five. Can you just tell me what you've got?

Keith: Yeah, let's see here. Mine goes up to 5:19 also. I only have 19 verses in chapter five.

Jono: I'm confused. I'm concerned. I looked at my Hebrew Bible and sure enough it goes up to 26. And so, maybe we can figure that out by the time we get to the end of it. But it is Leviticus 1:1 to 5:26.

Nehemia: So, the reason for that is that the chapters were only invented in the 13th century, with the exception of the Psalms. The rest of the Tanach, the Old Testament, didn't have chapter divisions. They were introduced around the early 13th century by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Stephen Langton. And they were only implemented into Hebrew bibles and to Jewish bibles at a very late date. Because of that, the verse numbers are often different, and specifically in this case. So, what in the English bibles…I should really say gentile bibles. In gentile bibles, translations to the Tanach would be Leviticus 6:1. In the Jewish bibles, like in the Hebrew, of course, and also in the J.P.S, which is Jewish Publication Society, even the Stone Edition, that bad translation, it'll be Leviticus 5:20. So in yours, it only goes 5:19. In ours it goes...6:1 for you is actually 5:20 for us. And it ends in your English bibles in Leviticus 6:7, whereas in our bibles that's Leviticus 5:26. So, it's the same verses, they're just numbered differently.

Jono: Excellent. Thank you.

Keith: Can we go with the majority opinion here and go with the English bibles and make Nehemia adjust to us, or should we go with the Torah portions as they're...

Jono: Well, I guess we got to keep going right through 6:7, which is in reality 5:26. So, now that we…

Keith: Before you read, I do have an important question I would like to ask both of you. I would like to know...Nehemia, when you were in the synagogue and it was time to read these portions, were you ever in a synagogue where there would actually be commentary, or was it always simply reading it?

Nehemia: No, they would just read it. Now afterwards, the rabbi in many synagogues would get up and give a sermon and that would be the interpretation. But that was actually from a different place. There's a certain place in the synagogue, an elevated sort of platform where someone would go up and, if they knew how, they would read it. If not, a professional reader would read it for them. That was done on this platform. The rabbi, who would then give the interpretation, after the whole thing was completed, after the Torah was put back into its box, into the ark, that would be from a different position, so that nobody would, God forbid, think that he's actually reading from scripture rather than giving his interpretation.

They made a very important...and here, I got to give the rabbis credit. Because sometimes, they'll have these interpretations which are so wild and so ridiculous…but what they won't do is actually change the text of scripture. They'll tell you, "This is the literal meaning. But we don't go by the literal meaning. Here is the true meaning that God has revealed through the rabbis or transmitted through the tradition." So, they make that clear distinction between the interpretation and the actual words. They don't change the words; they never dare to do that. Again, they're very creative sometimes when it comes to the interpretation, and they'll even read words differently in the interpretation. But when it comes to actually reading in the synagogue, they don't change a single dot or a single tittle.

Keith: Okay, so my question to Jono is…Jono, in your tradition, when they would open up they word of God, was there any difference between them opening up the word of God and when they were actually sharing? Is there a place where they read it or discuss it?

Jono: Well, in my tradition, Keith, it was very blurred. You would be told what the words were on the page, and then you would also be given a figurative or allegorical meaning or application to what we just read, and it would take it to a totally different context. But we would hear the words. And then we would be told what it meant, and how it applies to us.

Keith: The reason I was bringing this up is, we're about to go into Leviticus, and I was…I always learned a long time ago that this is a book that's sort of unnecessary. That this is only about the…

Nehemia: Is that a joke?

Keith: What? I'm telling you. This is a book that's completely unnecessary. It's regarding the sacrifices, etc. If you were to do a survey, and you were to go to a church and say, "How many times would someone speak from the book of Leviticus?" I bet you couldn't find five percent of present-day Christian pastors who would open up the Book of Leviticus and actually speak from it. And the reason I brought this up, and I've been thinking a lot about this…just this idea, Nehemia, that in the tradition that you come from, that they would see the word of God as the word of God, and actually treat it differently, and have this level of respect and reverence for it. But it is the word of God. And then, their response to it would still be a response.

And Jono, your experience, in your background, they might say, "Okay, this is the word of God. And now, we're going to give you the allegorical or the meaning of it. And here is what you need to know." And I just thought about how we're reading this book, this is the word of God. I mean, it is the same as everything else that we've done. But how I approach it has been a little bit different, because I have to admit for myself, in the Book of Leviticus, there's so much of it that disconnects from my present life. Meaning, when we're dealing with sacrifices and what's happening in the Temple, I don't even get a chance to go and look at the Temple as it stood. Rather, I have to hear about…here's what they say it looked like, as we've been talking about. Here's what we think is how it was. And then, I don't even have a place to actually see it. So, it's really kind of a…I'm really looking forward to this section and to see how we approach it. That's what I wanted to ask, how you guys have seen the word of God…

Jono: No, certainly. Because Keith, I remember...what we would often do is, we would start…in my tradition, you begin in the New Testament and make sure everyone understands what that all means, and now, let's go cherry-picking. And, only in the cherry-picking you would go back to Leviticus and just pull out a couple of things. Just to pull what you've already established.

Keith: Right.

Jono: So, I am very…I've got a lot of questions here.

Nehemia: So, I'd like to actually turn the tables, and give some credit to your tradition, Keith, and your tradition, Jono. I don't know if this is everywhere in the Christian world, but one of the things I have encountered is people from your traditions who will sit down, by themselves or with a group, and just read a chapter of the bible. They won't even discuss it, they'll just read it. And maybe they'll discuss it afterwards. In my tradition, I was actually taught never to do that. I was taught that if I…now, they did that in the synagogue, but I was taught to never sit down by myself and just read a chapter of the bible and just hear what it has to say, without a running commentary of the rabbis. I was taught that if I did that, it would lead to blasphemy, and I like to say…and heresy. I like to say that, at least when it comes to heresy, that I'm a living proof that it's true. So, there I have to give credit to your tradition, because what we did do in the synagogue is, we would read from the Torah and the prophets in Hebrew. But to actually read it in your own language…which, today I can read Hebrew, but growing up I had to read it in English, and I was told that that was forbidden; that I was not allowed to read it by myself in English because it would lead to heresy. And here I am…

Keith: Well, if we're going to do this...

Nehemia: …and you can see.

Keith: If we're going to do this, I want to bring this up. Because this is…I kind of wanted to tiptoe around the tulips on this. But one of the things that I wonder is, I have friends who come from a Catholic tradition. And one of the things they will say is, it's never a legitimate Catholic church unless they're actually doing the mass in Latin. And if they're doing it in Latin, and even though you don't understand what the Latin is, or whatever, it's authentic. Now, what happens around it? Okay, this is what happened. But we've heard it. And so, I'm just wondering.

And then also, in my particular tradition, the Protestant movement, the idea was we want to get back to the word of God, to giving people a chance to read the bible for themselves. And there was a huge response, as we know historically, to this idea of giving the bible to people in their language so that they could actually read it. Now, we're kind of on the other end of that. Now we're saying, "Okay. Yeah. And that's great. Look, this is a bad translation. This is a bad translation. Oh. Well, here is the Hebrew." You know? It's like this balance we have to go through to try to help people understand the significance of the word of God being given in their language, and then knowing that man sometimes gets involved in that. That we still want to have the original, and if there's a way to get the balance.

But I just think it's interesting that in your tradition, Nehemia, they would say, "Don't read it without commentary." In our tradition, they would say, "Read it, but as the spirit leads,” in some of our traditions, as the spirit leads…you can come up with any translation the spirit leads you to. But I think what we're trying to do is, we're trying to say, "Here, we have these different backgrounds. What does it actually say in the language? And then, what could it mean?" So, that's why I'm interested about Leviticus. How are we going to be able to help people understand what it meant, and what it could mean for us today? This isn't a book we would normally have a good-old-fashion...Methodist messages from. I guess that's my point.

Jono: Absolutely. So…

Keith: But it is the word of God.

Jono: It is the word of God, and it begins like this. Now, "Yehovah called to Moses and spoke to him from the Tabernacle of Meeting, saying, 'Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, When anyone of you brings an offering to Yehovah, you shall bring your offering of the livestock of the herd and of the flock.' And this offering is a burnt sacrifice." So, this is the first category that we have, is the burnt sacrifice of the herd. "Let him offer a male without blemish; He shall offer it of his own free will at the door of the Tabernacle of Meeting before Yehovah." And he shall…now, I should warn everybody; if you're an animal activist, this whole book really doesn't…particularly the opening of this, it may be upsetting to you. But this is just a part of life.

And it said, "He shall put his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it shall be accepted on his behalf to make atonement for him. He shall kill the bull before Yehovah. And the priests, Aaron's sons, shall bring the blood and sprinkle the blood all around on the altar that is by the door of the Tabernacle of the Meeting, and he shall skin the burnt offering and cut it into pieces. The sons of Aaron, the priests, shall put fire on the altar and lay wood in order on the fire. And the priests, Aaron's sons, shall lay the parts, the head and the fat, in order, on the wood that is on the fire of the altar. That he shall wash its entrails and its legs with water. And the priests shall burn all on the altar as a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to Yehovah."

Nehemia, there's a lot of questions there. For one, the last thing that I read, and we read this a lot, is "...an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to Yehovah." Are we to understand…I mean, I don't know why it sounds funny to me to ask this question, but are we to understand that he's going, "Oh, yeah. Barbecue." Is that…so, I mean, what?

Nehemia: Look, there are a lot of different things here. Let me deal with the sweet or, "reach nichoach", which is a smell or sweet aroma. This goes to a bigger question, which is…Jewish philosophers love to debate about this back and forth. And they ask questions; they say, "Well, if God is eternal and infinite, then that means he's the same today as tomorrow and yesterday." And then they say, "Well, if God would actually experience emotion, then emotion would change him."

Now, think about that with yourself. Have you ever experienced something that made you really, really angry? More angry than you've ever been, and then, really from that day forward, you were never the same? At least, you'd had an experience you've never had before. So, most Jewish philosophers, I would say, believe, and I don't know that Christian philosophers are much different. I don't really know much about Christian philosophy. But Jewish philosophers tend to say that God doesn't really experience emotion, doesn't have a physical body. Every time a scripture talks about a physical body or an experience of emotion..."And God got very angry," and "God was pleased," those sort of things…that's just using language that allows us to try and connect with something that is infinite and beyond our comprehension. We shouldn't understand that God literally got angry, or happy, or...now, I'm not saying that that's my view, and it's something I'm still trying to work out in fear and trembling and prayer and study.

But in any event, there are a couple of possibilities. Maybe God literally smells it with his nose. I find that hard to believe that God actually has a physical nose that he literally smells it with. I do think, to some extent, in this case, that it's speaking in human language, trying to explain to us in a way that we can connect with, something which is beyond our comprehension. That is God, who is infinite. You don't have to agree with that. It's something I struggle with myself. And maybe I'll let Keith talk about that before we go to the big issue, which to me is, what is this all about? These whole five chapters that we're reading. That to me is the big question. This specific thing, I'm not so concerned about that. I mean, that's something we could talk about. But there's so much to talk about in this Torah portion, that I really want to…but let's let Keith talk…and actually, let me just continue.

Keith: The only thing I was going to say was, I'm trying to figure out who actually is bringing the offering. So, it says "you are to bring it to the priests." So, here's the thing that kind of threw me off a little bit. It was, okay, so I'm bringing the offering to the priest. I've got my bull.

Jono: My old bull, yeah.

Keith: I'm supposed to kill it myself?

Jono: I guess. You put your hands on the head of the offering...

Keith: Wait, wait. And then, I'm supposed to skin it myself?

Jono: Well, yeah. I guess.

Keith: I'm not guessing. I want to know if this is...

Jono: I don't know. I mean, it says...

Keith: Because then it says...

Nehemia: These are things that…sorry, go ahead.

Keith: Then, it says, "He is to skin the burnt offering and cut it into pieces."

Jono: Yeah.

Keith: "The sons of Aaron the priest start to put fire on the altar." So, what I'm trying to get just a clear understanding before we get in to the nitty-gritty here. So, I am an Israelite…

Jono: Who slaughters and who skins, right?

Keith: So, I'm an Israelite. I'm bringing an offering. So, I've found my bull. I kill it. They take the blood and they sprinkle it. Then, I'm to skin it? Is that your understanding, Nehemia?

Nehemia: No, actually not. But we'd have to look at other passages in the Tanach to see that. But basically, these are things that were done by the Kohanim, the priests. That is, the direct male descendants, father to son, in the male line of Aaron. And they had the Levi'im, the Levites, who were direct male descendants, father and son on the male line from Levi, who is an ancestor of Aaron. So, they would assist with some of the actions. For example, they wouldn't sprinkle blood on the altar, but they might do the slaughtering in their assistive role. But that's actually…I think, actually, that's the nitty-gritty.

What I want to offer now, very briefly, is an overview. We have five chapters, and each chapter talks about something fundamentally different. Actually, five different types of sacrifices. So, somebody says to you, "How many types of sacrifices are there?" You could say five. And the truth is, there are more. For example, there's the Passover sacrifice, which is a type to its own. But there are five primary types of standard sacrifices.

The first one…I'm going to use the Hebrew names and translate each of them. These correspond numerically to the five chapters in Leviticus that we're reading. And you're admittedly in chapter six. But in the Hebrew, it's five chapters. Chapter one is the Ola. Ola literally means, ascends. But the reason it's called that is that it's a whole-burnt offering, and the entire thing ascends, up into heaven in the form of smoke and fire.

The second one…and that's an animal sacrifice, Ola. The second one is the Mincha, which is a grain offering. The third one is Zevach Shlamim, which is a peace offering. The fourth one is the Chatat, the sin offering. And the fifth one is the Asham, which is the guilt offering. And those, again, correspond. So, for example, the second one, Mincha, which is the grain offering, is Leviticus, chapter two. The third one, the Zevach Shlamim, the peace offering, is in Leviticus, chapter three. The fourth one, Chatat, the sin offering, is in Leviticus, chapter four. The fifth one, Asham, the guilt offering, is Leviticus chapter five.

Now, there are sub-categories that we'll read about in later chapters. For example, there's the peace offering, which is a subtype of the peace offering that we'll read about in later chapters of Leviticus. But for now, what we've seen is five chapters, and each one has a type of sacrifice. Ola, Mincha, Zevach Shlamim, Chatat, Asham. Whole-burnt offering, grain offering, peace offering, sin offering, guilt offering.

As an aside point to grain offering, many English translations, ironically, translate that as the meat offering. And that's just old English. In old English, meat meant grain. But correctly, it's not a meat offering, it's actually a grain offering. It's usually fine flour.

Jono: Sure. So, the first one, Nehemia; the burnt offering. You just mentioned a little bit further on this guilt offering, or trespass offering, as it says in mine. And there's a sin offering as well. How do these…why are these different? Because it says here in verse four that, "He shall accept it on his behalf to make atonement for him." And I have to assume that if he's making atonement, it's some sort of sin offering. Right? I mean...

Nehemia: Right. So, that's a bad assumption. That really goes to the question of why on earth would someone ever bring an Ola, a whole-burnt offering? These sacrifices are completely burned. And that really goes toward what the Chatat Ve-Asham are for. Should we get into that, or should we...?

Keith: This is fascinating to me. Because I think, for me…and look, you guys have to understand. If we opened up the Book of Leviticus, it was only for one reason. It was only for one reason, and that's to parallel the New Testament with Tanach. Or the sacrifice, the ultimate sacrifice and, you know, this is all touchy stuff. But the point is that would be the only reason. And so, the idea would be, and there's no sacrifice without blood. And then here, you're telling me the second sacrifice is the grain offering? Where's the blood?

Nehemia: Whoa, whoa. There's no sacrifice without blood? So, can we jump ahead?

Jono: Hey, hey, hey. Did we just jump ahead? We jumped ahead huge. Now, this is probably the most controversial thing that we're possibly going to talk about in this whole section.

Keith: Maybe we shouldn't talk about this.

Jono: No, no. We have to talk about it. Because now I want to…

Nehemia: I asked if we...

Jono: I'm going to read it to you.

Nehemia: You interrupted…

Jono: Chapter five, verse ele -

Nehemia: Before you read it, can we jump ahead to Leviticus chapter five? Okay, so in mine, it's verse 13. But that's probably because there are different chapter numbers.

Keith: Okay, go ahead.

Jono: In the English translations, this is Leviticus 5:11. I mean, we can do it now. It's just amiss…on to 13, it says, "But if he's not able to bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons, then he who sinned shall bring for his offering one tenth of an ephah of fine flour as a sin offering. He shall put no oil on it, nor shall he put frankincense on it, for it is a sin offering. Then, he shall bring it to the priest, and the priest shall take his handful of it as a memorial portion and burn it on the altar according to the offerings made by fire to Yehovah, it is a sin offering." This is verse 13 in mine. "The priest shall make atonement for him." Now, let me just...

Nehemia: Somebody say atonement.

Jono: Atonement. We have fine flour. "It is a sin offering. The priest shall make atonement for him, for his sin that he has committed in any of these matters, and it shall be forgiven him. The rest shall be the priest's, as a grain offering." Now, this is undoubtedly one of the most controversial things that we have to talk about because...

Keith: I'm going to leave the program. I'm going to leave…

Jono: Keith. You can't go anywhere…hey, you can't bring this up and then walk away.

Keith: I can't be on this program right now. Are you kidding me? I mean...

Jono: This is it, because we've been told over and over again, you and I, in our tradition, what we've been told consistently…consistently, Keith at least with me, it's been hammered so many times, there is no atonement for sin without the shedding of blood.

Nehemia: Wow. Is there a New Testament verse to confirm that?

Jono: Keith? Keith. I mean, he's pro…

Nehemia: He's finally scared away the Methodist. Yes, this will be an exclusive Nehemia Gordon only, with Jono Vandor. I finally got my own show.

Jono: He's passed out on the floor. We'll wait for...

Keith: Okay, guys. I'm back. And this is why I didn't want to go into the book of Leviticus. I mean, now you guys have me…and in all seriousness, the thing that's so difficult about this, and having read through Leviticus…and again, I wanted to say this to everyone. I'd like to say this to all of our listeners and to you, Nehemia, and to Jono. I have such a passion, and compassion, for people that are in the church that I really want them to have a level of understanding. And in this situation, this is striking at the nerve for those who come from that tradition. So now that we've gone to chapter five, are we going to go back and clean it up, or...

Jono: Wait. We can't go back…

Nehemia: You're not going to give…no, you got to give me the verse from the New Testament. What's the New Testament verse?

Jono: Is there a…

Nehemia: I'll bring it. I'm reading from the King James Version, the Book of Hebrews, 9:22. To the best of my knowledge, this is the source of the statement that you had just said. That you need blood, you can't have atonement without blood. Here's what it actually says in Hebrews 9:22. This is the Karaite, reading from the Book of Hebrews. It says, "And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission."

Jono: There's is no remission.

Nehemia: Now, it seems to me the key word there is almost. Right? Which in Greek is "schedon". It doesn't say, "All things of the Torah are purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission." It says that's almost...and that's actually kind of true. We'll qualify that. It's almost true. So, he is recognizing…whoever wrote the Book of Hebrews is recognizing that in Leviticus, we've this little verse, Leviticus 5:13, where there is atonement and forgiveness without a single drop of blood. And so, that's consistent with the New Testament. Where I think people get in trouble is where they start to get theological, and they ignore what it actually says in the New Testament.

Jono: You see, but in combination with that, Nehemia, after you read that in Hebrews 9:22, you are then directed to Leviticus 17:11 which says, "For the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I had given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your soul." There it is. There it is. That's what the blood is for. The blood is...

Nehemia: All of that is true. But…

Jono: And so, it goes on to say, “But it's the blood that makes atonement for your soul.”

Nehemia: Okay. That's not quite what it says in Hebrew. But we'll get to that when we talk about Leviticus 17. That's not fundamental for this issue. I think more importantly is, under what… now, we got to go back to Leviticus chapter one. Because that's really the question. And the question is in Leviticus chapter one…and, really, we read 5:11 out of context. But let's go back to Leviticus one. In Leviticus chapter one, who...

Keith: Thank you, Nehemia.

Nehemia: ...and why would ever bring an Ola, a whole-burnt offering? And I'll give you what the Jewish answer is to that. And you could say, this is wrong, and it's tradition. But the Jewish understanding is that the whole-burnt…and this doesn't change for Karaites or Rabbanites, because you can actually prove this from scripture. The whole-burnt offering in Leviticus, chapter one, is actually a voluntary offering. It's what's called a "nedava", which is free-will offering. Or it's one of the types of free-will offering. Now, why then in verse four does it have to do with atonement? I think to understand that, first we have to read verse four and understand the words of it. Can you read verse four of Leviticus chapter one in your translation, Keith Johnson?

Keith: Yes, I can. "He is to lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering; and it will be accepted on his behalf to make atonement for him."

Nehemia: Now, what does yours have, Jono? Yours had something different, didn't it?

Jono: It's kind of similar. "Then he shall put his hand on the head of the burnt offering; and it shall be accepted on his behalf to make an atonement for him.

Nehemia: So, what it literally says in Hebrew is "Ve-Samach Yado". And he shall lean his hand on the head of the whole-burnt offering. And it should be acceptable to him, or accepted for him, to make atonement for him. Now, what does it mean, "To lean his hand"? That's a strange expression. It appears repeatedly throughout this section. And we get the answer in Leviticus 16:1 where it explains what a person does when they lean their hands. I'm going to ask you'd read that, Jono.

Jono: 16:21. This is what it says. It says, "...Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions concerning all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and shall send it away into the wilderness by the hand of sinful man."

Nehemia: For the purpose of leaning the hand, it isn't just some kind of symbolic thing that has no meaning whatsoever. It's actually a Hebrew idiom that, in the context of a sacrifice, had to do with what you do when you're leaning your hand, which is explained in detail in Leviticus 16, which is to actually confess your sins. You're not confessing your sins to a priest or to a rabbi. You're confessing your sins before the Creator of the universe. And through that, transferring, in a sense, the symbolic sense, the sin, from you onto the animal that you're sacrificing. And then, what you offer…now, here's the thing. If this is a free-will offering, why would you…why are you bringing it to get atonement? What does it have to do with atonement? I think to answer that, and I know Keith is not going to like this, but I think, really to answer that, we need to jump ahead to Leviticus chapter four. Can we do that?

Jono: We can do that?

Keith: Of course. We can do it.

Nehemia: So, if we read in Leviticus chapter four, and in my Hebrew, it is verse 27.

Jono: Keith, what do you have?

Keith: Verse 27. "If a member of the community sins unintentionally..." Is that the one?

Jono: Hmm-mm.

Keith: "...and does what is forbidden in any of Yehovah's commands, he is guilty. When he is made aware of the sin he committed, he must bring as his offering for the sin he committed a female goat without defect. He is to lay his hand..."

Nehemia: Then it goes on and it describes what we call the "Chatat" sin offering. Leviticus, chapter four, describes this is for the priests; for the high priests. The community in here, the individual in verse 27. Why is this important? Because this commandment is repeated in the Book of Numbers. And there we have a very key detail. It explains why the Jewish interpretation, that's to say, Leviticus 1 is a free-will offering, and you're not required to bring it. Leviticus chapter 15, verses 27-31. Let me just skim. I'm not going to read the whole thing, I'll read the key parts. It says, "And if a soul..." literally, if a soul, if one soul will sin, "Bi-shgaga", which is a term we'll talk more about, basically means unintentionally, "...he shall bring a goat female, one-year old, as a sin offering...". So, it's the same sacrifice, except for here it tells us it's a yearling and in Leviticus 4, it didn't tell us that. She-goat. "...and the priest shall make atonement for the soul that has sinned unintentionally..." et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. “And it shall be for atonement for him." It will be forgiven for him. And then, it goes on to talk about, verse 29, how there's one law for you, for those who act unintentionally, that is for the native-born and for the sojourner. And then verse 30 is very important. I'm going to let you read verse 30, Jono, from your translation.

Jono: Numbers 15:30 says...

Nehemia: Now, it's important because up until now, 27-29 of Numbers 15 was identical, essentially and it's the same thing being described in Leviticus chapter 4; somebody who unintentionally sins. And we could talk more about what unintentionally means. But he didn't do it on purpose.

Jono: But someone…

Nehemia: He brings a she-goat…

Jono: Yeah, he brings the she-goat. So, “The person who does anything presumptuously, whether he is a native or a stranger, that one brings reproach on Yehovah, and shall be cut off from among his people, because he has despised the word of Yehovah. He has broken his commandments. That person shall be completely cut off. His guilt shall be upon him."

Nehemia: So, what that means is, if you sin accidentally, you've got a whole bunch of sacrifices to take care of it. You sin on purpose, presumptuously, intentionally, there's no sacrifice that can help you. The sacrifice is not going to give you atonement. It's useless. If you look in the Prophets, this is something they repeatedly talk about. And I'm going to…can I read a few verses about this?

Jono: Please.

Nehemia: 1 Samuel 15:22. This is after the famous story where Saul brings the sacrifice that he was not allowed to bring. He should have waited for Samuel to bring it. So, Samuel said, "Has Yehovah a great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of Yehovah? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams." So, Saul thought, "Woah, what God really wants here is a sacrifice. We have all these rules. Who really cares about the rules? I'm just going to bring the sacrifice." And Samuel said to him, "No. What God wants is obedience, not your sacrifice." Not your sacrifice. Isaiah 1:11, "To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to me? says Yehovah. I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed cattle; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or the lambs, or goats." So, what's he talking about? I thought he does. I thought he wants the blood. It's the sweet smell. That's only for the unintentional sins. For the intentional sin, it's useless. Hosea 6:6, "For I desire mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings." One of the most famous passages; Amos, chapter five, starting in…actually, a better one. There's more of a famous one, Micah 6:6. In English, the verse might be a few verses off. "With what shall I come before Yehovah, and bow myself before the high God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?" And that's not calves on your legs. It's young bulls. "Will Yehovah be pleased with thousands of rams...?” This is Micah 6:7. "Will Yehovah be pleased with thousands of rams, ten thousand rivers of oil?" And that's because they offered oil as part of the sacrifice. "Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has shown you, O man, what is good, and what Yehovah requires of you. To do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God." And it goes on and on.

I'll just read a couple more. Amos 5:22, "Though you offer me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them. Nor will I regard fat and peace offerings." How can he say this? Isn't he required to accept the blood? The blood brings atonement automatically, right? Well, no, it doesn't. Amos 5:23, "Take away from me the noise of your songs, for I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments. But let justice run down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream." Why does he say that? Because there's all these rivers of oil pouring out of the Temple. And he says, "I don't want the rivers of oil. I want justice to run down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream." And then he says in verse 25 of Amos 5, a very important verse, "Did you offer me sacrifices and offering in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?" And the point is, this isn't what I commanded, that when you came out of Egypt, I didn't tell you, "If you sin, bring a sin offering." It doesn't say that in Leviticus. In Leviticus, it says, if a person brings an offering, that can help them with atonement after he confesses his sins. And that's part of the process of repentance. But if you sin presumptuously and haven't repented, all the blood in the world can't cover your sins. That's what it says there in the Book of Numbers, chapter 15, that we read there. And this is what the prophets are talking about.

I'll read a couple more. Cut Keith off. I love doing it. Psalm 40:6, "Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but you have given me an open ear. Burnt offerings and sin offerings you have not required. I delight to do your will, O my God. Your Torah is within my heart." That's what God wants. The obedience. The Torah in the heart. Not the rivers of blood and the thousands of burnt offerings.

Jono: Keith.

Nehemia: Another great passage which I won't read…or you can read it, if you want. Jeremiah 7:21-28, which basically says the same thing.

Keith: So, oh Israelite…Nehemia Gordon, my Jewish brother...

Nehemia: Are you one of the lost tribes, Keith?

Keith: No, no, no. Let's go back to the Israelites, and let's help our people that are listening. Okay? We’re all living in the land back then. And you intentionally did something to me. You sinned against me, Nehemia. So, you're saying that if you intentionally sinned against me, you couldn't just run to the priest and bring a goat and lay your hands upon a goat?

Nehemia: Well, that's kind of obvious. That first, I have to make amends with you. But let's talk about if I intentionally sin against God. Let's talk about how there was this…and I'm just going to bring a really simple example here. There was this big pork chop on the plate. And I said, "I know this is a sin." It says in Deuteronomy 14, "It's an abomination to Yehovah." But it looks really yummy, I'm going to eat it anyway. And just…I don't care. Later, I'll bring a sacrifice. Whatever. I'm just going to eat the pork chop. That sacrifice is useless to you. All the blood in the world can't cover that sin, can't atone for that sin of yours. Now, what can you do, is the question? And that, the prophets tell us repeatedly. We read Hosea. The book of Hosea, chapter 14, one of my favorite passages, verses…

Jono: "O Israel, return to Yehovah, your God; for you have stumbled because of your inequity. Take words with you and return to Yehovah and say to him, 'Take away all inequity, receive us graciously, for we will offer the sacrifices of our lips.' " But of course, that's not what it says.

Nehemia: We will pay for the bulls with our lips.

Jono: Amen.

Nehemia: Okay?

Jono: There it is.

Nehemia: Amen. Alright. And then he goes on; in verse five it says, "I will heal their backsliding, I will love them as a free-will offering...". So, God doesn't have to accept the sacrifice. That's the point in Leviticus 1:4, where it talks about laying the hands, which is sort of an act of confession. That's a part of the repentance that he's talking about here. "Take with you words and return to Yehovah...". It's a free-will offering. You're not required to bring that sacrifice, because the sacrifice isn't automatically going to cleanse you of the sin. It has to be part of a process of repentance. This is something we also see in Psalm 51, which I don't think we've read before.

So, let me read that from the Hebrew. So actually, Palm 51, interestingly, is two separate psalms. The second psalm…I mean, written in two separate, completely different times. The first one is the Psalm of David that took place at a specific time in David's life. Then there's a completely separate psalm which begins in verse 17 of the Hebrew and goes through the end of the psalm, which is verse 21. And it says, "Lord," Adonai, "Lord, open my lips, and let my mouth speak your praise, for you do not desire sacrifice and payment, burnt offering you do not want. The sacrifice of God is a broken spirit, a broken and..." - literally, crushed heart - or "...contrite heart. God, do not despise." Meaning, "Look, you might not even accept my broken and contrite heart. So, I'm begging you God. Open my lips and let me pray to you and ask you not to despise this thing that I'm offering you."

Then in verse 20, it says, "Heitiva birtsonch et Zion", which means, sort of like, rebuild with your desire, Zion. Build the walls of Jerusalem. Then he shall accept righteous sacrifice, whole-burnt offering. Then, "Bulls shall go up upon your altar." So, it's not just any sacrifice, where I say, "I sinned. I killed that person. Now, I'm going to bring the burnt offering of the bull, which is the top of the line. Right? The bull is the top of the line, because after that it goes down to the goat and the sheep.

Jono: And the…

Nehemia: Can't afford that. And we got the turtledoves and the pigeons.

Jono: And you've got flour.

Nehemia: But the bull is the top of the line. So, I murdered that guy, or I ate the pork chop. And now, I'm going to…I don't need to worry. I'm just going to bring this bowl, and everything will be fine. It doesn't work that way. It's only the righteous sacrifice that's accepted. And that's part of this process of the broken and contrite heart of the repentance. Then you can bring, as a free-will offering, if you want, a sacrifice that can be part of that process of repentance. If you can't bring the sacrifice, Hoshea talks about instead, your free-will offering will be the words of your lips to pay for that bull.

Jono: Amen. Keith.

Keith: Well, this is such great information. It's what the book says. And I have to thank Nehemia for what he's just done in making the connection between the prophets, and Leviticus, and the offering, and the unintentional sin offering. I mean, the bottom line is, the way that I always understood it, and I'm the one that's representing my tradition. So, if I went out Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and just acted like hell, I could touch heaven on Sunday because of the sacrifice that was made on my behalf. And I could use these verses in Leviticus regarding this sacrifice and everything would be okay. And then I look at Nehemia and say, "Nehemia, so what is your hope? I mean, you acted like…you did this on Monday, or Tuesday, or Wednesday, or Thursday, or Friday. What do you do when you go to your synagogue? What are they going to tell you about what's going to take care of it for you, so you can go back out and do the same thing again?" So, here we're finding in Leviticus that this issue of unintentional sin versus intentional sin, that, for unintentional sin, here's the sacrificial system, if I can use that word carefully. But for the intentional sin, the only thing I can do is repent.

Nehemia: And after the repentance, then you can bring free-will offering. But that doesn't give you the atonement in and of itself.

Keith: Now, here's what I love about what we're talking about there, Jono. It's that it's almost…it's making me more comfortable now. Because when I go back into the New Testament, I hear this man who's saying, "Repent. Repent."

Jono: Sure.

Nehemia: Wait. Why does he need to repent? Don't you just need to confess something and then you can continue to sin?

Jono: That's what I was told in numerous occasions. But what you are saying is that, if it comes to our attention, or really, we know, because it's intentional sin. It's presumptuous sin. It's rebellious sin. We have done it on purpose. But now, looking back, a lot of people listen to what we’re saying now, and I know this because so many people have asked this question. They listen to this and they go, "Look, oh, you're reminding me. And I know. I know that I did that wrong. And I'm really sorry about that now. But I intended to it, and I did it. What does that mean for me? Because now I'm repentant. But, what? Is there no guarantee? I mean, really, we're subject to the mercy of Yehovah." And Nehemia, would this be an appropriate time for…if I can ask you about Manasseh? Was it Hezekiah's king? The son, Manasseh, is a king of Israel, who, if I remember correctly, went down in history as one of the most evil kings of all time.

Nehemia: That's because he filled Jerusalem with blood. That wasn't blood for sacrifices. It was the blood of innocent victims. Human beings.

Jono: What was his end? He was captured, wasn't he?

Nehemia: Let's pull up the passage. Why am I talking about Manasseh?

Keith: Now, I thought for sure Jono was going to stop at that time and say this…

Nehemia: Wait…

Keith: Nehemia. No, no, no. Jono, I thought for sure you were going to say, "Nehemia, this is a great time for us to pray." Because I tell you something...

Jono: Actually, I tell you what. Before we look at this, maybe we should do that.

Keith: Yeah. Because this is such an important issue regarding the sacrificial system. And I want say, to people that maybe are a little bit new, their knees are shaking or they're a little bit nervous. What's amazing about this portion that we're talking about is that there's this beautiful picture of this relationship that we have with Him, and regarding holiness and connection, and relationship with Him, and this idea of sacrifice. But we want to make sure we understand what the sacrifices were for. Unlike that sort of casual shallow approach that I've grown up in, which is, "Oh, it's the sacrifice." And all that it is that point towards something else. And its meaning here that wouldn't really have much meaning. So Nehemia, you've done such a great job bringing us through this. Can you ask that our eyes would be open?

Nehemia: Yehovah. Avinu she-bashamaim. Oh, Yehovah, Our father in heaven. Ta'al eininu ve-nabit nifla'ot mi-torateicha. Uncover our eyes that we may see the wonderful hidden things of your Torah.

Keith: Amen

Jono: Amen. Amen. So, we're looking briefly…we're just looking at 2 Chronicles, chapter 33. I think from verse…can I pick it up from verse 10?

Nehemia: Sure.

Jono: Because what it says is that "Manasseh seduced Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and did more evil than the nations whom Yehovah had destroyed before the children of Israel." And verse 10, "And Yehovah spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they would not listen. Therefore, Yehovah brought upon them the captains of the army of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh with hooks, bound him with bronze fetters, and carried him off to Babylon." Took him with hooks. And now, when he…

Nehemia: Woah. I've got to stop you…so, what the Hebrew says isn’t hooks. What it says is he took him with thorns.

Jono: Truly?

Nehemia: And I'll bet what they had on Menashe was a crown of thorns because he was a king.

Jono: Oh, wow.

Keith: Oh-oh.

Jono: How that…here's a Torah Pearl. We could dwell on that, but let's move on. "Now, when he was in affliction, he implored Yehovah, his Elohim, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers and prayed to him. And He received his entreaty, heard his supplication, and brought him back.”

Nehemia: Wait. But God can't do that. That's not allowed, right?

Keith: Wait a minute. What are you talking about, Jono?

Nehemia: He sinned presumptuously. That is that. There's no way out of it.

Jono: He did. He sinned presumptuously. He was rebellious, and he was…

Nehemia: And all he had to do was pray? What?

Jono: No. That's not what…no, it says, "He humbled himself greatly." Humbled himself greatly.

Nehemia: Was that a broken and contrite heart?

Jono: I would say that's a broken and contrite heart.

Keith: Wait, wait, wait. In the in-between, he must have gotten to a priest and given a sacrifice.

Jono: No. It doesn't say that. It says, "He humbled himself greatly before Yehovah." He's in Babylon…no, he's in Assyria, but he's been taken away. And he prayed to Yehovah.

Keith: So, there's no temple.

Jono: There's no temple.

Keith: There's no priest.

Jono: There's no priest.

Nehemia: There's a temple.

Keith: Not exactly true, but...

Nehemia: Well, look at verse 13.

Jono: No. Where he is, though. I mean, where is he?

Nehemia: Alright. Okay. That's true.

Jono: He's not there. He's been taken away into exile “And Yehovah received his entreaty and heard his supplication and brought him back to Jerusalem, into the kingdom. Then, Manasseh knew that Yehovah was God.”

Keith: Jono, thank you for...

Nehemia: Wow…how about…because there's this statement that Keith has shared with the people too, where Elijah is battling with the false prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. And he gets the people to proclaim, "Yehovah, hu ha-Elohim. Yehovah, hu ha-Elohim." Yehovah, he is God. Yehovah, he is God. And that's what it says here, "And Menashe knew that Yehovah hu ha-Elohim." Yehovah is God.

Jono: Amen. And just incidentally, is not the book of Jonah similar to this, when Yehovah said to Jonah, "You will go to Nineveh." Like it or not, you're going there. And you're going to tell them to repent. Because they're doing wickedly. They have to repent. And what we see there is that the king eventually...after the fish spits him out, and he takes his message to them. And the king of Nineveh says, "Oh, my goodness. Okay, everyone, sackcloth and…", it's very much like the day of atonement, right? And there's no sacrifices, as far as we see. All we see is repentance. And Yehovah pardons them.

Nehemia: What I really like here is verses 15-16, which I'm going to go ahead and read.

Jono: Go on.

Nehemia: Because this is after he's repented and after Yehovah accepted his repentance, brought him to the land, gave him back his kingdom. And then, it says in verse 15, "He took away the foreign Gods and the idols from the house of Yehovah."

Jono: Amen. It was in the house of Yehovah? My goodness.

Nehemia: Here, he's in good faith repenting. He doesn't know yet that he hasn't finished the process. He's not perfect. Only after all that does he take away the foreign Gods and the idol from the house of Yehovah and all the altars he built on the Mount of the house of Yehovah in Jerusalem, and he cast them out of the city. And it says in Hebrew, "And he built the altar of Yehovah." I mean, he repaired it. I'm translating, "He built the altar of Yehovah, and he sacrificed upon it, peace offerings…", excuse me, “…peace offerings and thanks offerings. And he said to Judah to serve Yehovah, the God of Israel.”

So, here's he has repented. And what does he do? Well, I'm sure he said to himself, "I've got to bring the sin offering. I've got to bring the whole-burnt offering because that's the one that gives me the atonement." But he doesn't even bring those sacrifices when he finally rebuilds the Temple. He rebuilds the altar of the Temple, cleanses it from the idols. Then, why do you have to build the altar? Because pagan sacrifices have been altered on the altar, he had to tear it down and rebuild it, so he could have a clean altar. And then, he brought peace offerings and thank offerings. Wow.

Jono: There it is.

Keith: You know, it's amazing, guys. One of the things I appreciate about what's happening in this particular portion is that the idea…again, and I'm coming from my perspective, where I've come from. The idea of opening up the book of Leviticus would almost be…what could we possibly understand from the book of Leviticus? There's no more Temple. There are no more sacrifices. What does this matter? But in this simple, but very…I don’t like this word "simple". In this approach, we're basically trying to get under what the purpose of this was. And that's why I so much appreciate this. And Jono, the idea that you just brought. I mean, the concept that you brought. The verse that you brought, with Manasseh. I mean, at first I was thinking, "What is Jono doing?" and, "This is…

Jono: Jumping to the end of the bible.

Keith: But exactly, it had…definitely, that's…

Nehemia: We’re in chapter one of Leviticus!

Keith: Yeah. I mean, I thought this is one of those deals that Nehemia was going to bring a verse and I didn't know…you guys surprise me every time. This is impressive. I really appreciate this.

Jono: When you find yourself in this kind of situation, when you look back upon your life, particularly when you've discovered new things, when your eyes are opened to understand what...that's it! The wonderful, hidden things of his Torah, and then you say…because, particularly coming from my tradition, Keith, I've met a lot of people in the same situation where they'd panic and they go, "Oh my goodness." Then read about Manasseh, and to read how Yehovah dealt with him, and how he repented. And as Nehemia pointed out from Psalm 51, the broken and contrite heart. And you can find encouragement from that. And you can literally throw yourself before Yehovah and rely upon his mercy and be repentant. So, I'm really glad that we got to do that. That's a Torah Pearl.

Nehemia: Here's another kind of interesting thing, which is, read the section on peace offerings and the thanks offerings in Leviticus. The peace offering is Leviticus 3. The thank offering, we'll actually get to next week. You won't find anywhere in those descriptions the word "atonement". So, those sacrifices, the specific sacrifices he brought…and it says before, because it's kind of obvious. I guess maybe it's not obvious. Those were not atonement sacrifices. There is no atonement involved in bringing the peace offering or thank offering.

Jono: So, it's called a peace offering. But what…I mean, is it as if they don't have peace between them and God? I mean, what is it? What is that about?

Nehemia: So, a peace offering is a sacrifice that you bring as a way of showing, really, your thanks; your gratefulness to God. It's a way of showing that you're in a state of peace, and you're bringing that to God. The difference between the peace offering and the burnt offering, in a sense, is that you actually eat. The person who brings it eats the peace offering...

Jono: Ah, and this is verse 11.

Nehemia: He doesn't eat the whole-burnt offering. It's obviously completely burnt. And…none of these offerings are…

Jono: I was going to ask you about this. Because it says in verse 11, "And the priest shall burn them on the altar as food, as an offering made by fire to Yehovah." And obviously, Yehovah is not eating the offering. So, it says, "as food", which we understand that they themselves partake of what becomes a meal.

Nehemia: No, no, no, no. What chapter are you?

Jono: Ah, okay. So, this is Leviticus 3:11, at least in my translation. So, you are telling me that they actually eat the peace offering? Or how do you answer that?

Nehemia: So first of all, it says "lehem", which is bread. It literally says, "And the priest shall burn it." Actually, it's not talking about the meat. I mean, if we're talking about the peace offering, there were parts of the peace offerings they did eat. But verse 11 is specifically talking about what's described in verse 9, which is the fat. The forbidden fat. There are actually six types of forbidden fat with the sheep, and five for the goat and the bull, and those are burnt on the altar. That's what's called "lehem esh le Yehovah." A bread. A fire offering to Yehovah. In other words, in some kind of symbolic sense, this is the bread of Yehovah. Does Yehovah actually eat it? I don't believe so. But I'm sure somebody could argue that he does.

Jono: So, we're back to the question; does he actually smell it? Or does he actually eat it?

Nehemia: Right. Does he smell it? Does he eat it? Does he taste it? I don't think in the literal sense. But it's being described in those symbolic terms.

Jono: And yet, it is absolutely specified in verse 16, "All the fat belongs to Yehovah."

Nehemia: Right. Right. Exactly.

Jono: He likes the fat.

Nehemia: Then, it talks about how you can't eat the fat in any animal. In any of these types of animals that you sacrificed, you can't eat the fat. That's in verse 17. "'It's an eternal statute throughout your generations in all your habitations." And they translate the word as fat, but that's not really accurate. The word is "helev", which is a specific type of fat. There are six specific types of fat. "All helev and all blood, you shall not eat." The types of fat are actually listed in Leviticus verse 9. There is the fat tail, the clump of fat of the tail of the sheep. There is the fat that covers the innards and the fat that's on the innards. That's what generally, in English, called suet. There is the two kidneys and the fat upon them. And there is the appendage on the liver, which is the fat that covers the liver. So, it's six types of fat. Again, it's not like the fat in your marbled steak. This is actually a specific type of fat that, like I said, in English, I think that's usually called suet. They use it for pastries and things like that. You are forbidden from eating that, according to the Torah. Not because it's unclean, but because it's holy and belongs to Yehovah. Therefore, you must leave it.

Jono: Isn't that fascinating? And quite often…Keith, I know a lot of people, they read just this verse and they say, "Well, what about my…what about my steak? And there's the rim of fat around my steak. And when I cook, and then the juices come out, and there's obviously still some kind of blood there. What do I do?" But it's very specific about what fat belongs to Yehovah. And as long as the animal, if I understand correctly…in fact, Yoel Ben-Shlomo did a detailed discussion about this that you can find on truth2u. But I guess we don't have time to do it now. But if you want more details in regard to that, you can certainly go to Yoel Ben-Shlomo in “Guests.” Click on that and you'll find details.

Keith: Can I just a systematic thing very quickly with Jono and Nehemia, for those listeners here that are thinking, "Wow. Okay, we're doing this portion.” A very simple overview. Very quickly. So, Nehemia. I'm going to ask you a question. I want you to try to give the Keith Johnson answer, not the Nehemia Gordon answer. Okay?

Nehemia: Okay. We'll see what we can do.

Keith: Of these five…what you did very wonderfully in the beginning, talking about these five different offerings, if I can just bring this up because it's really significant when we get to the last chapter before the end. So, the burnt offering would be considered for what, Nehemia?

Nehemia: So, the burnt offering is a free-will offering. Although, there are specific instances when one is required to bring, generally, where the priest is required to bring a whole-burnt offering. And then at various festivals and things like that. But as the rule, the individual would only bring it as a free-will offering.

Keith: Second, in the grain offering, what do you think…what do you see the grain offering as being for?

Nehemia: So, the grain offering, again, is a free-will offering. There are specific instances where one is required to bring a grain offering. It actually talks about that as a first-fruits offering, which is a specific type of grain offering. But by and large, this category, grain offering, is a free-will offering. And that's just specifically in a specific instance for…your commanded to bring it, which there are instances like that. As a rule, this is a free-will offering that you bring because you feel like you want to offer something to Yehovah.

Jono: …some to Yehovah.

Nehemia: And that's... Exactly. So, it's not actually something that you're required to do.

Jono: Before we continue...Keith, sorry. Just before we go to the peace offering, let me just ask a quick question, because this is a little bit odd. It’s verse 13, "And every offering of your grain offering…". Now, just before that, it already says, don't be putting leaven or honey in this. There's none of that in the grain offering. But, "You shall season with salts. You shall not allow the salts of the covenant of your God to be lacking from your grain offering." The salt of the covenant of your God.

Keith: Yeah. Okay.

Jono: What's that?

Nehemia: You add salt…

Jono: Okay, so you add salt. But the salts of the covenant?

Nehemia: This is a grain offering.

Jono: Salt of the covenant of God. Okay.

Nehemia: Seems kind of straight-forward to me.

Jono: This is obvious in Hebrew. Keith, help me out here.

Keith: Okay. Make sure you have some salt. Now, number three. The fellowship offering, or the peace offering. What do you see that as being?

Nehemia: That is another type of free-will offering. I guess it's actually…technically, you'd call it a peace offering. That is something that you would eat. It's interesting that you translate it as a fellowship offering, because that's really the function, I think, that it served, in many respects. But then, there are more rules that talk about it in other places, that basically, you have three days to eat it. And then, you have to burn it after that. This is an offering that, when you offered it, you'd bring it to the Temple and sacrifice it. And then, you'd go somewhere, in a clean place, and you would eat it as a festival meal. This was the festive meal that they would…and for example, the section at the end of chapter 20, where it actually talks about Saul having one of these peace offerings, and David is missing. He's like, "Well, where is David?" And they said, "Well, he had a…", well, this is for children, "…he's ritually unclean." And you can read there why he was ritually unclean. "And so, he wasn't able to come to this peace offering today." And why wasn't he? Because this is sacrificial meat. It wasn't just regular meat. So, this was something that they did on special occasions. People didn't eat meat everyday like they do in some countries in the world. Like in your wasteful country, Keith. It was special occasion when people ate meat, and so they wanted to dedicate that, in a way, to Yehovah, and have it be a ritual act. So, they made a peace offering.

Keith: So, bear with me, Jono and Nehemia. So, this is where I…we got to chapter four. It says at different times…I just want to share these verses very quickly. 4:1, "Yehovah said to Moses, 'Say to the Israelites, when anyone sins unintentionally and does what is forbidden.' " And then it says in verse 13, "If the whole Israelite community sins unintentionally and does what is forbidden." And then, it goes on. And then, in verse 22, "When a leader sins unintentionally and does what is forbidden, here is the command." And then, in verse 27, bear with me, "If a member of the community sins unintentionally and does what is forbidden." And then, it goes on. And I think it's verse 5...oh, and chapter five is the next one. But basically, based on what we were talking about earlier, here are these verses that normally wouldn't jump off the page. But they jump off the page for me now. Because we were talking about the purpose of these sacrifices that are for the unintentional sin. And so, I want to say that it helps to now see chapter four in context of these different offerings that were brought.

Nehemia: I should point out, there are some things in these chapters that are intentional, but they're generally things that are kind of passive. They're not things that…and those are specific cases. For example, in Leviticus 5:1, talks about a soul who sins. And he hears the voice of an oath. And he has witnessed, or he sees, or he knew, and he doesn't say, and he bears the sin. So, there there's a situation where somebody saw something or knew something, and he didn't testify when he really needed to. And so, he bears sin because of that. Then, here is a sacrifice. So even though he intentionally didn't…it wasn't an accident. There it was intentional. That's a specific case where he can bring a sacrifice. But the general category here is unintentional sin. Can I talk just really quickly about what that means, unintentional sin? Do we have time for that? Okay. So, unintentional…the Hebrew word is "Shgaga". And you'd think, "Well, that's kind of self-explanatory." And it is, in a way.

But let me just give some examples of what unintentional means. There are different categories of it. So basically, the opposite of unintentional, is intentional. Where you know what you're doing is a sin, and you know you're doing it, and you do it anyway. Let me give a ridiculous example of an unintentional sin, which is I'm yawning and there's this big chunk of pork that's flying through the air, and it lands in my mouth, and I swallow it. So that's the pork example. Another example is I intentionally ate the pork. It didn't fall into my mouth. But I didn't know pork was forbidden. And that's actually what it says, or it refers to that type of thing. In verse 27 and 28, it says, "If one soul sins unintentionally from the people of the land." What he does, "One of the commandments of Yehovah which shall not, and he is guilty, or it is made known to him, his sin which he sins." So "is made known to him" meaning he did something. He knew exactly what he was doing, it wasn't an accident, he just didn't know it was a sin. Now, how didn't he know it was a sin? Maybe he just never knew. Or he forgot, or for whatever reason.

Number three, the third category is, you knew what you were doing. You knew that a certain action was a sin. But you didn't realize that the action you were doing was that sin. And that sounds very complicated, so let me give the pork example. So, you ate this nice big chunk that you believed in good faith was tofu. And after you ate it, somebody points it out to you and says, "You just ate pork." So, that's another example of an unintentional sin.

And now, I want to quickly bring an example having to do with the Sabbath. The first example, I did a thing by accident. I somehow accidentally did work on the Sabbath. You know, you're not allowed to buy or sell. So, somehow, I accidentally bought and sold. I don't know. I fell and pressed a button, maybe. The second one, where you didn't know it was a sin. In that example, I worked on the Sabbath, but I didn't know work was forbidden. And number three would be, I worked on Shabbat, but I thought it was Tuesday. Then somebody says, "Wait a minute. This is not Tuesday. It's Shabbat," while you're working. So, those are some examples. Now, what's really interesting is number four, which is something that traditional Jewish sources identify in 5:17. So, here I'm going to do something really interesting. I'm going to ask Keith to read 4:27, and then, Jono read chapter 5:17. And what you'll see is those verses are almost identical. The question then becomes, what is the difference between them? And that’s a source of all kinds of interesting exegesis.

Jono: Yes.

Nehemia: Yeah.

Keith: 4:27

Nehemia: Keith, why don't you read both of those, so we have the same translation? 4:27 followed by 5:17, one after the other.

Keith: Okay. "If a member of the community sins unintentionally and does what is forbidden in any of the Lord's commands, he is guilty." 5:17. "If a person sins and does what is forbidden in any of the Lord's commands, even though he does not know it, he is guilty and will be held responsible."

Nehemia: But what is this, "Even though he does not know it," now becomes a source of all kinds of interesting discussions. The truth is, we don't really know, specifically, how that's different from the accidental sin. But the example that's brought by some of the rabbinical commentators, and this may be correct, is what they call an "asham talui", which refers to…the example they bring is if there's two pieces of fat in front of you, and one of them is permissible fat. You know, just the marbling of your steak; and the other one is suet. And you eat one of those pieces. Then somebody comes to you and you think in good faith that both of them are permissible fat. Then somebody comes and says that, "No. One of the pieces of fat that was in front of you was suet and forbidden." So, you actually don't know that you sinned even after you find out about this issue. Meaning, there's a doubt, even after the fact, about whether you really sinned. You suspect. You have good reason to suspect you sinned, but you don't know for sure. So according to many of the commentators, that's what Leviticus 5:17 is talking about. That's how that differs, then, from Leviticus 4...really, the whole of chapter 4. But specifically, 27 and 28, where there you know for sure after the fact that you've sinned. You just didn't know it at the time that you were doing it, or you didn't do it intentionally. So, that sounds like a very subtle difference. But the bottom line is that there's some difference between 4:27 and 28, and 5:17. Even though on the surface, a superficial reading will say, "Well, these are two of the same things." But they're obviously somehow different. One requires a sin offering, the other requires a guilt offering.

Keith: This is going to be interesting, Jono. As we go through this, this is going to be really something.

Jono: There's a lot in it. Isn't there a lot in Leviticus, and...

Keith: Yes.

Nehemia: Yeah.

Jono: So, I'm looking forward to getting...because, particularly being from my tradition, I suppose, a lot of this you hear for the first time. And then so many pieces of the puzzle. You know, this is the puzzle. How does it all fit in? And it's just a…Leviticus is just one of those parts of the puzzle that you just don't know where to begin, when you come from our tradition. So, I really appreciate this, guys. This it's great.

Keith: Thank you.

Nehemia: Can we look at some of the pearls? Because I know we probably are running out of time. I would think…could we just quickly look at some of the pearls? Okay. So, look. There's a pearl in Leviticus chapter 2, that has to do with the "aviv". I'm not going to talk about that. I'll talk about that whole…if we get to Deuteronomy 16. Or maybe Leviticus 23. So, those who want to look at it and get ahead, look at Leviticus 2:14-16; that actually has to do with the biblical calendar. But I could talk about that for three hours.

Jono: Let's not do that.

Nehemia: Okay. So, another thing that's worth looking at in Leviticus, just very briefly, Leviticus 4:3. It's the first time the word Mashiach appears. Messiah. The first time it appears in the bible. And it's talking about this unintentional sin. It says, "If ha-kohen ha-mashiach," The mashiach priest, the anointed priest. What it's talking about is the high priest who's anointed with oil; if he sins unintentionally. He's got to bring a bull. He can't get away with a flour offering.

Jono: Yes.

Keith: Amen.

Nehemia: He can afford it. Another little pearl...I'm sure Keith has something to share as well.

Keith: The only thing I wanted to bring up, you all...and this is really on behalf of some confusion, but that is really quite interesting. In 5:2, "Or if a person touches anything ceremonially unclean, whether the carcasses of unclean wild animals, or of unclean livestock, or of unclean creatures that move along the ground, even though he is unaware of it, he has become unclean and is guilty." And so, when I read that some years ago...excuse me?

Nehemia: You got to read the next verse. You got to read both verses, 2 and 3.

Keith: Okay. "Or if he touches human uncleanness, anything that would make him unclean, even though he is unaware of it, when he learns it, he will be guilty." So...

Jono: When he learns it.

Nehemia: Okay. Okay. I've seen so many people stumble on this, who read these two verses, and they think, "Okay..." Oh, you're not done.

Keith: I’m not done…

Jono: Keep going, Keith.

Nehemia: You're done, Johnson!

Keith: Okay, go ahead, Nehemia. He asked me if I have a pearl. I was going to bring this up.

Nehemia: So, share your pearl. I thought you were done.

Keith: No, no, no. I was actually…

Nehemia: …a break in speaking, and so I jumped in.

Jono: Sorry, guys. It's a...

Keith: Hello?

Jono: Hello. Sorry, that was a problem on my end. For the first time, the modem dropped out. We were…

Keith: Well, I was trying to say one thing, and...okay? I mean, if you…

Jono: Even technology is against you, Keith. I mean...

Keith: No. If you go…this show here…I think you might notice, maybe I said one thing...I just have one thing I want to say. I want to say something. This has been such an education in approaching it this way. The reason I want to bring up this point, I want to bring up is because I think there are a lot of people that get confused about this. And then, if you guys would like to answer, that would be great. But at least let me finish saying it.

Jono: Come on. Don't leave a gap. Don't leave a gap. Because you're jumping...come on. Take advantage of the stage when you've got it.

Keith: I'm sorry, guys. Really, I don't have anything to say. I'm sorry. Are we on? Okay. Okay. Okay. Jono, can you please edit this?

Nehemia: No. Leave it in. It's funny.

Keith: So, I was trying to bring up this issue of confusion regarding being unclean. The idea that if I'm unclean, that means that I cannot go to the Temple. However, there are many people who say that if I'm unclean, that means that I have sinned. That means that I am bad. That means that in my uncleanliness, I'm no longer acceptable to God. And one of the things that's happened is there has been confusion regarding being unclean as a bad thing versus being unclean and the inability to approach the Temple or to bring your sacrifice. And so, that is why I wanted to bring up this particular verse. Because I've had people that get very confused about this, and say, "Well. Now that I'm unclean, I'm no good before God. I need..." whatever. Versus, again, what the issue of being unclean meant. And the point was that I cannot bring my sacrifice in the state of being unclean. And then there's a process of washing, which we're going to talk about later, I know. But this was just the first time that it jumped off for me. So, that's why I wanted to bring it up.

Jono: I'm really glad you did. I'm glad you brought that up, Keith. I remember, Nehemia, you talked at length in regard to Leviticus 15, and we will get there in the not-too-distant future, in regard to Nidah, and I know that there have been women that said to me, "Well, what does it mean? That I've sinned, if I have…I mean, does that make me a bad person? Isn't this the way…" and there's some real turmoil in regard to that, but we'll definitely get to that. I'm glad you brought that up, Keith.

Keith: Okay, thank you.

Nehemia: Can I explain this verse? How it means what Keith is suggesting it means?

Keith: Please.

Nehemia: Let me read it and offer a more, I think, correct translation than what yours has, Keith. Because that's kind of vague, what you read to me. So literally, it says, "A soul that touches anything that is tameh," and "tameh" is this word…it means unclean. Ritually unclean. "Or the corpse of an unclean animal, or the corpse of a…" How do you translate that? "A creepy crawling thing, and it is hidden from his eyes." And that's really important there. "It is hidden from his eyes. That he is unclean," or literally, and he is unclean. "Ve-ashem." And he becomes guilty.

Now, what is it describing here? It says, "Or if he touches the uncleanness of a man, all his uncleanness which he can become unclean in it, and it is hidden from eyes, and then he knows, and he becomes guilty." So, what it's describing here is…let's take the example of a dead body; of a dead human. Okay? So, if you touch a dead human body, you become ritually unclean for seven days. Or there's a seven-day process of purification, that is. So, I've touched a dead body, and I didn't know I touched a dead body. Now, how is that possible, you ask? That's ridiculous. Okay. That's kind of probably difficult. But that could happen. But I'll give you a much easier scenario, which is that there's a commandment that if you're in the same room as a dead body... and that's in Numbers 19. It actually says the same tent. But for our purposes, at least those of us who don't live in tents anymore, let's say that means the same room. Although some people would argue it's the same building. But let's say for argument's sake that it's the same room. Being in the same room with a dead body...well, let's say that's the emergency room of a hospital. Do I know everyone who's in the emergency room of a hospital? Not really. Maybe some of them are dead, lying under a sheet. That's definitely possible. That's not even a far-fetched scenario. In fact, every time you walk into an emergency room, there's probably a good likelihood that that happened; that somewhere in there, someone has just died. So, I then walk out of the emergency room, head straight for the Temple, and go into the Temple and bring my sacrifice. I go home, and I'm so happy with myself. Then I hear on the radio that night that someone died today in the emergency room at such and such a time. And I look at my watch and I realize, "Oh-oh. I was unclean when I went into the Temple and I didn't know it. It was hidden from my eyes. It was hidden from me."

We can bring a million scenarios here. But basically, you became ritually unclean. You didn't know it. It was hidden from you. You came into contact with either the Temple or something related to the Temple. It doesn't have to be the Temple itself. The meat of a peace offering could be brought out of the Temple after it's sacrificed and then eaten for three days. I touched that. Or I touched all kinds of other things I'm not allowed to touch. And then, I find out about it. So, at that point, I'm uh-oh, guilty. So, it's not the actual act of becoming ritually unclean that made me guilty. It's the fact that it was hidden from me. I came into contact with something I wasn't allowed to come into contact with, and then, I found out, and now I'm guilty because of that. For that situation, I bring the sacrifice as described here in Leviticus chapter five, which is a type of guilt offering. So, that's what it's talking about.

Jono: There it is. So, if you're at a Weekend at Bernie's and you find that, later on, he was actually dead, you thought he was alive, and you shook his hand. And oh, my goodness.

Nehemia: Exactly.

Jono: There we go.

Nehemia: That's the situation. And if you read, for example, verse 4, you see a similar sort of scenario. It says, "A soul who swears an expression of the lips to do bad or to do good..." Now, what does it mean, "to do bad or to do good"? That doesn't mean to sin. "To do bad" in this context means, for example, to deprive myself of something. So, if I make an oath, I swear…and I'm not saying this…but if I were to swear that I wasn't going to eat bread for the next three days, that's "to do bad". Or, I was going to bring a certain sacrifice. That would be "to do good". Anything of the expression of the man in an oath, "and it was hidden from him, and he then knows, and he has become guilty of any of these." So, what does that mean? It's a similar sort of scenario. The actual act of making the oath isn't a sin. It's the fact that something was hidden from my eyes. So, I make an oath that I…and I actually hear people doing this. It's an idiotic thing to do, in my opinion. But there are people who think it makes them holier, so they'll make an oath and say, "I am never going to…" Not that I am saying this. But they would make an oath and say, "As Yehovah lives," they say it in the name of the Creator, and then they swear that they'll never drink wine again, or never touch alcohol again, which is not commanded by scripture. And then, they're drinking some apple cider, and afterwards someone says to them, "Don't you know you just drank alcohol? And your oath was never to drink alcohol again." Then, you find out, and you become guilty. So, the actual oath itself isn't the sin. Just as in verses 2 and 3, becoming ritually impure is not the sin. It's because it was hidden from your eyes. That's why it's important to see the context. And then you find out, and then you become guilty because you did something that you didn't know about while you were ritually impure. That is, you realize you were ritually impure. You didn't realize you were consuming something or doing something that you've made an oath not to consume or do.

Jono: Okay. Is there anything else somebody wants to pull out of here before we say goodbye? There's got to be one more pearl. Is there one more pearl?

Nehemia: Well, okay. So, verse 8. It's just food for thought. Can you read me verse 8 in your translation of Leviticus 5?

Jono: "And he shall bring them to the priest, who shall offer that which is for sin offering first, and wring off..." I'd really like to know what it says in the Hebrew. "...and wring"

Nehemia: And wring off its neck, here it says. What does yours say, Keith?

Keith: Say again?

Nehemia: Just skip to the part where he does that to the bird.

Keith: "He is to wring its head from its neck."

Nehemia: Okay. So, the Hebrew word is "malak", a word that appears twice in the Tanach. Its exact meaning is not entirely clear. The traditional explanation, which has some linguistic support, actually, is that it means to cut the animal's head, cut the bird's head with the nail. Now, you essentially slit the throat, but you don't completely detach the head. They get the not-detached part from the end of the verse, which says, "And you shall not separate", is what it literally says. So, "He shall malak..." whatever that means, "...its head over against the back of its neck, and he shall not separate." So, that's somehow cutting its throat with the nail. That's the traditional explanation. So literally, it doesn't mean to wring off the neck.

Jono: I’m really glad we had time to clarify it. Because what you're telling me is that, quite possibly, it means to slit the throat of the animal so that the blood can pump put, right? I mean, the blood needs to pump out. And the heart pumps out the blood. And this is exactly as we do with the chickens. We slit their throat and let them bleed out, and then you go about preparing a chicken. So, I would imagine it would be the same. I cannot possibly fathom grabbing a chicken and wringing off its neck.

Nehemia: Look, that's how some people kill chickens around the world. And that's why they translate it that way. They didn't pluck that out of the air. The JPS, the Jewish translation, has "pinching its head at the nape without severing it." Which I think is a pretty fair translation. I think that's probably pretty accurate.

Hey, before we end, one last section that we'll just read real quick and let people think about. If it's okay. If we have time. Maybe you and Keith can do it, which is chapter five, verses 21 to 24, which has all kinds of different scenarios where you bring this guilt offering. So, I think it's just worth to hear what those are.

Jono: Okay. So, do you want me to quickly read this through?

Nehemia: Yeah. Please.

Jono: "And Yehovah spoke to Moses, saying, 'If a person sins and commits a trespass against Yehovah by lying to his neighbor about what was delivered to him for safekeeping, or about a pledge, or about robbery, or if he has extorted from his neighbor, or if he has found what was lost and lies concerning it...", I didn’t find it, I don’t know where it is, "...and swears falsely, any one of these things, which man may do, in which he sins, then it shall be because he has sinned and is guilty, that he shall restore what he has stolen, or the thing which he has extorted, or that which was delivered to him for safekeeping, or a thing that was lost which he found, or all about which he has sworn falsely. He shall restore to full value, add one fifth more to it, and give it to whomever it belongs on the day of his trespass offering. And he shall bring his trespass offering to Yehovah, the ram without blemish from the flock, with your valuation, as a trespass offering to the priest. And the priest shall make atonement to him before Yehovah, and he shall be forgiven for any one of these things that he may have done in which he trespasses." That's the way the Torah portion ends.

Nehemia: Yeah. And of course, these are all examples of things which are, essentially, verbal crimes. At the same time, they're not accidental. Here, these are something he does on purpose, but he does it through speech. So, in these cases, he is allowed to bring a guilt offering, and he can get atonement. But only once he repents. And not only repents, he's got to actually restore and make restitution, and then some.

Keith: Amen. May it be. Okay.

Jono: Well. That's it, boys and girls. That is the Torah portion. That is the first Torah portion for Leviticus, Vayikra. Next week, we are in "Tzav", I believe. Leviticus 6:1 to 8:36, chapter 8, verse 36. Thank you, Nehemia Gordon and Keith Johnson, my friends. It is marvelous to have you back on the program. I can't wait until next week. And to you listeners, be blessed and be set apart by the truth of our father's word. Shalom

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  • donald murphy says:

    believe we r all unclean especially concerning dead relatives or insects for instance.

  • Nick Strickland says:

    Before I became a messianic I used to argue against Christians that just because they relied on the sacrifice of Yesuah, that God commands us to repent and obey him which legitimized his sacrifice for us.

  • Renee Merkel says:

    Hi! Thinking of unintentional sin, one of the “natural flavorings” used in many foods is made from castoreum – anal glands of BEAVER. It is commonly used as a vanilla, strawberry or raspberry, etc flavor.

    (I wonder who was the 21st to say: let me see that this tastes like!! I imagine ie dogs liking butts of other dogs, and figure G-d made it a sweet taste for them… BUT…)

    So I had been enjoying Nestle coffee mate creamer – until one day the thought kept nagging me. So I called Nestle, and sure enough, that’s what they use!

    I explained the perverted idea of wringing beaver anal glands into your coffee, which she agreed to… after a long pause of disgust. I mentioned millions of Jews, Muslims, vegans and vegetarians not using their product for that reason.

    A couple months later they came out with a “plant based” version, but a vegan told me that the term is used very “loosely.” I need to make another call!

    Oh my! Repent is not the only word, but total disgust for what I had unintentionally been drinking for years!

    Thanks again for all your knowledge that you share… I enjoy listening every week. Shalom!

    • Nick Strickland says:

      I honestly think that in these days being exiled in pagan Nations we cannot get around some of the things we eat. Yehovah told Ezekiel to eat unclean bread, because of the exile that was coming where the Israelites would be subjected to unclean things, as a reminder of their disobedience in the Land where the Torah would be upheld. The fact that we are waking up to practices that are forbidden but Torah is a good thing as we try to keep the Torah as well as we can. I am thankful that we are in a time of extended grace, but prepared to follow his commandments

    • donald murphy says:

      Yes I’m always shocked to find something unclean that I have been eating, but am glad to finally find it.

  • Sarah says:

    You shall know the truth and the truth WILL set you free. It is amazing what you will learn by reading the Book for it it says rather than what you’ve been taught it says. Dumping the traditions which may or not be based on fact will indeed set you free

  • Nunya Biz says:

    Us good Christians were told a truth of these Leviticus sacrifices, when u symbolically transfer sins to an animal by placing hands on their heads, the animal pushes back, against u, but Yeshuah went willingly, as a grown man. Not a child. A child was born, yes, but a grown man, Son, was given.

    • Nick Strickland says:

      I like the idea of Yeshuah becoming sin for us in a TANAK sense of our sins being transferred on him even though he was innocent and did no sin

  • Richard Gonzales says:

    When is Yahushua Hamashiach Coming?

  • Alvin says:

    Use a 1917 JPS the latest JPS is dodgy. Also have a Stone Edition Chumash.

  • ADELE VOSS says:

    Is Nehemia Gordon available in a pocket edition ;and where can I get one!???!

  • Anna Lovison says:

    Wow this was HUGE! Thank you Nehemia, Keith and Jono ! You are much appreciated and adored by our whole family and your insights are invaluable! YHVH bless you all!

  • Laurie Laine says:

    I love this book! I think the thing that jumps out at me, unless I read these words, I don’t know what “sin” is.

  • For the sin offering, my bible says the flour is placed “on top of the offerings made to YHVH by fire.” So why couldn’t it mean that if you were too poor to bring an animal, you could still participate by putting flour on top of someone else’s blood offering?

  • cmsandiford says:

    Question, there was a lot of back and forth at the beginning. What is the Tanakh version that you suggest for someone who is fluent in English and only knows a limited amount of Hebrew?

    Thanks in advance!

  • Debra says:

    Thank you for covering all the sacrifices n offerings in such detail. Baruch hashem YEHOVAH.

  • Heather says:

    Another interesting point my husband and I found about presumptuous sins that parallels and dare I say clarifies Numbers 15:30-31 is found in Deut. 17:12-13. This describes someone who sins willfully and will not heed the warning of the priest about it, choosing to not see his sin and repent, then that person will be killed as an example.

    Also explained in the New Testament, how can the atoning blood of the Messiah cover someone who chooses not to repent. “IF we confess our sins” (make no excuses) “He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9.

    And again in Hebrews 10:26 “For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a terrifying expectation of judgment and THE FURY OF A FIRE WHICH WILL CONSUME THE ADVERSARIES.…”

    And as symbolized in the sacrifices, those sacrifices would be vain if 1) someone chooses to go through the motion but does not have repentance in their heart 2) flat out refuses to see, admit, repent and turn from their sins. No wonder that arrogant, rebellious person was supposed to be killed so as to not corrupt the rest of Israel. And no wonder God detested these kinds of sacrifices and would not accept them.

    Dont think it is about doing a sin willfully, knowing it is wrong, I think it is about not having true repentance about it or not repenting at all.

    • Reyes Nava says:

      Christendom has committed the greatest presumptuous sin of all when it assumes that the gracious and freely given invitation by YHVH to the gentiles (Isaiah 56:6-7) is incomplete and has the audacity to say to the Creator of the universe “if you want us to join ourselves to you then come down to earth so we can kill you and then we will serve you“.

      This is a slap to the face of YHVH

  • Heather Holloway says:

    As pointed out by Nehemiah, Hebrews 9:22 says almost all of sin is cleansed by blood. What about the other sins that are not cleansed by blood. Leviticus 14:21 points out it is the combination of a lamb and a grain offering for atonement of sin. “And if he be poor, and cannot get so much; then he shall take one lamb for a trespass offering to be waved, to make an atonement for him, and one tenth meal of fine flour mingled with oil for a meat offering, and a log of oil;”

    I believe that Yeshua haMashiach was a perfect representative of what the sacrifices symbolized. Why else did He insist, “”I am the bread of life” (John 6:35) and again, “I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” And why else did John the Baptist say when he saw Yeshua, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29).

    What does this have to do with the sacrifices in Leviticus? Matthew 26: 26 “And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body. 27 And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; 28 For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.”

    He is prophesying of what He was about to do, to become a living sacrifice of bread and wine (flesh and blood). The first sacrifice described in Leviticus 1, the sacrifice of the animal that was totally consumed described how Yeshua was a complete sacrifice for the sins of the people.

    No wonder He stated such shocking statements as this: 51 “I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. 52 The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? 53 Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. 54 Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. 56 He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. 57 As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. 58 This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever.” (John 6:51-58).

    By believing in Him we are partakers of the sacrifice of the grain and the blood made available for the rich and the poor, man and woman, and all alike. He had the sins that were to be atoned by blood and by grain covered in Him offering himself up for us upon the cross. “He who has ears to him, let him hear.” (Matthew 11:15).

  • Scott L. says:

    I would appreciate clarification on the Bibles you do and do not recommend. For example, you mention (I think) the Scherman Hebrew Bible as a good one, but then you go on to talk about problems with the Stone Edition. As far as I can tell, all of Scherman’s Bibles are a “Stone Edition.” Can you please clarify this? For what it is worth, I agree with your assessment completely – there is not really good Bible for those interested in the original languages. The best ones are electronic versions where you can easily view multiple volumes at once. Sadly, these are usually pretty expensive. Thoughts on this?

    On a semi-related matter, I am curious why it is acceptable (even required of course) to print G*d’s Name in Hebrew, but then once translated into say, English, it must be replaced with the word “Lord.” “Lord” is its own word “Adonai” in Hebrew, so such replacement usage is clearly wrong, even if a near equivalent, it’s still not His Name! For me, this is changing the original Scripture and rendering G*d’s Name vain (to nothing) which is clearly forbidden and so even worse than trying to “build a fence” and protect His Name. The problem with this, of course, is the situation we have now – no one can agree on exactly how His Name is pronounced – unthinkable! Just my two shekels and I’d appreciate your comments.

  • NOW ! A question with fear and trembling . Isn’t it clear then that the sacrifice is done away with as it is (according to God) unnecessary ?

  • Regarding the fat: are the 5 specified fats forbidden to be eaten even if the animal is not an offering at all but rather being slaughtered completely for food?

    • Joel says:

      I think that would be to your own discretion homie, when I read it, I immediately felt bad in the manner that I was enjoying the fat that Yehovah prefers for Himself….even if it’s not an offering, I’m convicted to not eat it any longer…But your absolutely right brother!..good point, your right, it isn’t an offering or sacrifice..so…It’s all on your conviction bro! God bless
      Hope this helped…I know I ain’t nehemia..

  • Angela says:

    What is the difference/similarity between the offerings offered for atonement that you discussed today and the ones offered by the Priest on the day of atonement?

  • Carol says:

    there is a cd called power bible and you can read it in interlinear. it must be ordered and installed on your computer. it’s great for beginners

  • Rebecca Honeyman says:

    Thank you both for being so diligent in your presentations. When you’re on the frontlines of any ministry, it seems to be like putting a bull’s-eye on your forehead. The rewards are vast, but putting yourselves into the limelight often opens you up to attacks from those you are trying to serve. YHVH bless and keep you. Most of those you teach are so much more than grateful for all your work and tolerance, than you will ever know. Maybe that’s just how it’s supposed to be. Again, I gratefully thank both of you for your hard work and profound grace. Abiding R.

  • rachealk@yahoo.com says:

    Hi Nehemia, I really appreciate all u guys do to make clearer the word of God, it has really helped. But please, I think, Keith should let you explain more, instead of jumping in, when you are trying to give us some torah pearls. its like the spirit of satan is trying to use him to block/interfer with the truth, coming out from u.
    Keith might be ignorant of this, but with prayer and with Gods help, you all will remain in Gods righteousness.