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Discussions Prophets and Writings

How to live a worthwhile life, rather than as a ‘worthless person’ (Judges 11)

Judges 11, a parallel passage to the Torah reading חֻקַּת‎ Chukat (“statute of,” Numbers 19–21), focuses on Yiftakh (Jephthah), a judge/ruler of ancient Israel. The account doesn’t portray him or his friends in a kind light. It underscores a key lesson that Yeshua haMashiakh (Jesus the Christ) taught that Heaven calls many to serve the good of the world, but those who aren’t transformed on the inside will only serve like did Yehudah Ish Kariot (Judas Iscariot).

https://hallel.info/chukat-2022-judges-11/

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Discussions Life With God Sexuality Torah

Yes, offering children to an idol is still a thing today. But it doesn’t have to be (Leviticus 20:2)

If you faithfully follow the news, you have heard that an early draft of a U.S. Supreme Court opinion to overturn Roe v. Wade was leaked to the media, which has created a firestorm of media attention. A 1973 Supreme Court decision that created a “right” to abortion, Roe was contentious at the time, and the prospect of its overturn is equally contentious.

In our day, we pretend that we are more sophisticated than our ancestors millennia ago, because we kill our children while they are yet unborn, in the privacy of a clinic. Medical personnel dispatch the unborn modern sophistication.

In the Torah reading Kedoshim, we discover that the excuses for killing the unborn today are the same as those given by pagan priests for the infanticidal sacrifices to the god Molech several thousand years ago.

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Discussions Torah

Entering God’s Presence via the sacrifice of a contrite heart (Leviticus 1:1–6:7)

None of the sacrifices or offerings of the Tabernacle or Temple of ancient Israel (recorded in Torah reading וַיִּקְרָא Vayiqra/Vayikra, Lev. 1:1–6:7) apply to us today, yet all of them apply to us today. That paradox comes to us because forgiveness for diverging from the Creator’s plan has always come to mankind the same way: the old way of life must die. Offerings of blood and food never accomplished that — and never were meant to.

So then, what’s the deal with all the detailed instructions in the Bible about killing animals, pouring and sprinkling blood, burning carcasses and bringing in offerings of produce? Yeshua the Mashiakh (Jesus the Christ) taught in parables, and the Word of God teaches through the parable of the Tabernacle.

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Discussions Torah

Numbers 15: One law for Israelite and foreigner

There is a difference between sins done in ignorance vs. those done willfully. But there is no substantial difference between how the native Israelite and the sojourner are judged under God’s instructions and called to repent.

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Discussions Torah

Genesis 9 — God blesses Noah

How did God bless (literally, “kneel before” or “bestow honor on”) Noah in Genesis 9 following the Flood?