Month: October 2023

From the River to the Sea

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From the River to the Sea–Which River?

Israel was savagely attacked through the towns along the Gaza border by Hamas a week ago, Shabbat October 7, which coincided with the last part of the feast of Sukkot, almost exactly 50 years after the Yom Kippur war—yes it was on Yom Kippur, the Holiest Day of the year for Israel and Jews everywhere. The express reason underlying all other reasons was and still is that “we want to annihilate Jews” and they will drive Jews “into the sea, claiming they will “reclaim” all the land “from the river to the sea” meaning from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean as the land of the Palestinians, or should I say, Arabs who hate Jews. But it is not only Jews that they hate. They hate anyone who does not worship the Muslim god and they have stated this. Christians will be next if they have their way. But why does this evil hatred of Jews exist in the world? And why in particular Jews? What do Jews have that inflames them? Is it the land of Israel? I don’t think that is the core issue.

Why did Hitler specifically design the cleansing of Jews from Europe? Why Jews? Why is there antisemitism in the world? These and others are age-old questions for which on any other level than a religious or Biblical one, make no sense. Jews are different, but how and why? It cannot be a racial issue because there are Jews of many colors and from almost every country on the globe. Perhaps the only thing that Jews have that other peoples do not have is a Covenant with the Creator of the world and those who hate the Covenant, hate the people of the Covenant. If they hate the Creator, they will hate the people designated by the Creator as His people. If they love sin they will hate any law that condemns sin.

So what about Jews that hate the Covenant and pretend to not be Jewish? Perhaps they even assimilated into other religions because of fear or worse yet, to rid themselves of the responsibility to keep the Covenant. But why are so many Jews suddenly becoming Zionists? What is there about the Promise to Abraham that his descendants would inherit the land? And who really owns the land from the river to the sea anyway? And which river was given in the promise to Abraham anyway? The River Euphrates. So when Israel gets back its land according to the Promise, it will be from the River Euphrates to the Mediterranean Sea. Here’s the promise:

“I will establish your borders from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, and from the desert to the Euphrates River. I will give into your hands the people who live in the land, and you will drive them out before you. Do not make a covenant with them or with their gods. Do not let them live in your land or they will cause you to sin against me, because the worship of their gods will certainly be a snare to you.” Exo 23: 31-33.

Do these evil ones somehow recognize that the God of Israel keeps His Word? It seems they are just watching for Jews to mess up so they can be weakened and then perhaps their God will not defend them. They are like the spoiled sons of Esau and Ishmael, siblings that hated the chosen ones. They act like jealous dogs who sit in the manger keeping the cows from eating even though they don’t eat straw. More specifically, this is the mind set against the Creator of the Universe and His laws. This is the mind of evil and when evil has taken full hold there is no coming back! It gets ugly—no!–Worse than ugly—it is savage, worse than any animal fight. It is too close for comfort here in Israel. The battle rages very close–even two hours down the road is too close! The world has seen footage of the bodies of innocent youth and children battered and their corpses paraded for all to see as these evil beasts exult in their deaths.

But the unfathomable question is why do strong men find value and rejoice over the killing of the innocent? This is cowardice! It is perhaps more of an addiction to blood—to the murder of innocents! It is one thing to kill fighters in a war, but children and youth and women? This should be something to be ashamed of—not something to post graphic videos to the world of dancing and celebrating over the victims of rage so that all the nations will see!

The element that most upsets me is seeing our own government seduced by American propaganda and empty promises of help! Where is the God of Elijah? And what about Amalek with Moses raising his hands to heaven to help the soldiers of Israel wipe them out? This is a situation where the God of Israel says: “not by might nor by power but by My Spirit,”! Who will pray? We can do this! Who will form a prayer chain and not stop praying until Amalek is completely destroyed?

From all appearances, this government will side with the advice of the nations that promise military aid. But it is not about horses and chariots, so says the Word of the Almighty. Making alliance with the nations has never been the right thing to do! We may be like Gideon’s small band of 300 unarmed soldiers, but the whole camp of the enemy can and will be routed if the God of Israel gets involved. We have no other hope. There WILL be a genocide if we do not take hold of the power of the One and Only Almighty God that called us to come out of darkness—the darkness that even now enfolds us as we see our leaders teetering on the edge of compromise with nations controlled by those who hate us. How so? Just watch this government change its tune about flattening Gaza and accept the compromise of military aid at the cost of a two-state solution. We need NO compromise! We need to take THEIR lands and extend OUR borders. It is time for those who trust the one who promised to go out with our armies. We will and MUST win, but it will NOT be by making alliance with America or anyone else! May the false leaders fall and a messianic spirit of prayer bring a leader to Israel that will work hand in hand with the Holy One, Blessed be He!

So Who Pulled the Wool over our Eyes?

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One steamy evening, actually a few days before the war started in Israel, the 3rd evening of Sukkot, five of us, my husband Ben and I, an elderly female friend and an Orthodox Jewish couple, sat on makeshift chairs in the small Sukkah of this elderly friend in the Golan Heights of Israel. The discussion was warm and friendly and soon revolved around New Moon observance and festival times and then something was said about blue dye and tzitziot which led to a discussion on Shatnez (“cloth containing both wool and linen (linsey-woolsey), which Jewish law, derived from the Torah, prohibits wearing” Wikipedia.) The man who claimed authority on this used Shatnez as the reason unclean things could be used in the Temple justifying the use of snails blood for dying Tzitzit. I had a bad feeling about this. He spoke of the Mishna as the qualifier for what he said. The broader discussion centered on the color Tekhelet and it’s source. We had suggested that Tekhelet (the color blue in the Torah) was not sourced from the Murex snail, being that the Torah condemns the use of unclean animals.

We, my husband and I had recently researched the ancient use of the dye for the color Tekhelet from Woad (check it out here). We found pretty solid evidence that the dye used for the Tzitzit, priestly garments and the blue used in the Tabernacle (Mishkan) was made from a vegetable source (most likely Woad) — not from an unclean snail as most Rabbinic Jews have believed. But this guy held out that it was totally acceptable because Shatnez was used in the Temple. He assured us that this example (the use of the dye from the unclean Murex snail) shows that other seeming inconsistencies regarding kosher and non kosher according to Torah were used in the temple service and thus also for us individually that were qualified by the written Torah.

I felt a bit confused and miffed with this explanation and began digging the next day. From where did this idea come, that a wool and linen mixture, completely forbidden for garments was allowed for the priestly service and in their garments? And even if Shatnez were allowed, how does this justify the use of extracts from an unclean marine mollusk?

Did the priests in Mishkan really wear wool in their garments? I always thought so from the Bible versions that I had read. I reached out to a friend who told me that I was mistaken, that wool was never permitted to wear inside the precincts of the Mishkan or Temple. Astounded I did a word search and found this to be correct–wool is not mentioned anywhere in the Torah as a clothing for priests. In fact the first reference was in Judges 6:37. So I went to Strongs to see if maybe it was wool but called something else. It was there under the Hebrew צֶמֶר. But what does it refer to in the 5 times it is mentioned in the Torah? Four times in Leviticus it is mentioned in relation to the plague of Leprosy (Tzarat) that can occur in a garment whether it be wool or otherwise. It was speaking, not of priestly garments but of common garments. Then the last reference is

Deuteronomy 22:11: “Thou shalt not wear a garment of divers sorts, as of woolen and linen together.” (Shatnez).

But there is no reference to wool in any of the priests garments, unless of course we look at the English translation in the Artscroll Chumash and a couple of other Jewish Bibles. Wow! What did they do to our Bible? I always thought the Ephod was made of wool. Not so.

So looking at the Hebrew or a more reliable translation, what it does not say becomes very interesting:

Exodus 28:6, 8 (Hebrew) reads thus:

וְחֵשֶׁב אֲפֻדָּתוֹ אֲשֶׁר עָלָיו כְּמַעֲשֵׂהוּ מִמֶּנּוּ יִהְיֶה זָהָב תְּכֵלֶת וְאַרְגָּמָן וְתוֹלַעַת שָׁנִי וְשֵׁשׁ מָשְׁזָֽר

וְחֵ֤שֶׁב אֲפֻדָּתוֹ֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר עָלָ֔יו כְּמַעֲשֵׂ֖הוּ מִמֶּ֣נּוּ יִהְיֶ֑ה זָהָ֗ב תְּכֵ֧לֶת וְאַרְגָּמָ֛ן וְתוֹלַ֥עַת שָׁנִ֖י וְשֵׁ֥שׁ מׇשְׁזָֽר׃

וְשֵׁש מָשְׁזָֽר means fine twined linen. Nothing about wool in Hebrew.

The Koren Jerusalem Bible translates the verse this way (no mention of wool):

Exodus 28: 6,8: “And the finely wrought girdle of the ephod, which is upon it, shall be of the same, according to its work; namely, of gold, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen…And the finely wrought girdle of the ephod, which is upon it, shall be of the same, according to its work; namely, of gold, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen.

But on the other hand, the Rashi Chumash version translates this way:

Exodus 28:6,8: “And they shall make the ephod of gold, blue wool, purple wool, scarlet wool, and twisted linen, artistic work…And the cheishev [the belt] of his adornment which is above it [i.e., which is on the upper edge of the ephod], after its manner [i.e., artistic work, of the five varieties (of material)], of it [i.e., woven together with the ephod] shall it be: gold, blue wool, purple wool, scarlet wool, and twisted linen.” (Lots of things added!)

The JPS 1917 Version states these two verses:

Exodus 28:6, 8: “And they shall make the ephod of gold, of blue, and purple, scarlet, and fine twined linen, the work of the skillful workman. And the skillfully woven band, which is upon it, wherewith to gird it on, shall be like the work thereof and of the same piece: of gold, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen.”

The Metsudah Chumash 2009:

Exodus 28:6, 8:“They shall make the ephod out of gold, greenish-blue wool, dark red wool, crimson wool, and fine twined linen, the work of a craftsman. The ephod’s belt, which is on it, shall be made in the same manner [as the ephod]—it shall be woven with it. [with] gold, greenish blue wool, dark red wool, crimson wool and fine twined linen.”

These are all Jewish translations. Why did some translate fine twined linen as wool? And why did they add several colors to the mix?

So where did this confusion come from? And why was this changed? Who authorized it? For a start, let us look at some commentaries about this:

Aramaic Targum
Onkelos Exodus 28:6 They shall make the ephod out of gold, greenish-blue WOOL, dark red WOOL, crimson [colored] WOOL, and fine twined linen, the work of a craftsman. Onkelos Exodus 28:15 Make a breastplate of judgment, the work of a craftsman. Make it in the same manner you made the ephod. [Out of] gold, greenish-blue WOOL, dark red WOOL, crimson [colored] WOOL and fine twined linen, shall you make it.

Talmud

Zevachim 88b:2 § With regard to the priestly vestments, the Sages taught in a baraita : The robe of the High Priest was sewn entirely of sky-blue WOOL, as it is stated: “And he made the robe of the ephod of woven work…, all of sky-blue WOOL” .

Rashi

Exodus 28:31 “And you shall make the me’il of the ephod [i.e., belted by the ephod] entirely of blue WOOL.”

The Rashi chumash by Rabbi Shraga Silverstein

Exodus 28:15 “a choshen which atones for subversion of judgment]; artistic work, like the work of the ephod shall you make it: gold, blue WOOL, purple WOOL, scarlet WOOL, and twisted linen shall you make it.”

The Rashi chumash by Rabbi Shraga Silverstein

Exodus 39:5 “Its skillfully woven waist band was of one piece with the Ephod, and like its material of gold, blue, purple, scarlet WOOL, and fine twined linen, as the Eternal commanded Moses.” Torah Yesharah, translated and edited by Chas. Kahane. New York, 1963

Rambam

Mishneh Torah, Vessels of the Sanctuary and Those Who Serve Therein

9:9: “They are called the belt of the ephod ….The entire garment is woven with gold, sky-blue WOOL, red WOOL, scarlet WOOL, and linen with 28 threads as described with regard to the breastplate.He should sew to it two shoulder straps …”

Mishneh Torah, Vessels of the Sanctuary and Those Who Serve Therein

9:10 “Afterwards, he places the ends of the cords of the breastplate in the upper rings that are on the shoulders of the ephod and he should place the two strands of sky-blue WOOL that are on the hem…”

Somehow I see fingerprints of who may have messed with the Torah! And now we know why the gentleman—the Mishna-ite in the Sukkah on the evening of the 3rd day of Sukkot excused the use of snails blood to dye holy garments and Tzitzit.

Apparently the laws about Shatnez had been violated even in the days of the prophet Ezekiel:

Eze 44:15-18 “But the priests the Levites, the sons of Zadok, that kept the charge of my sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from me, they shall come near to me to minister unto me, and they shall stand before me to offer unto me the fat and the blood, saith the Lord GOD: They shall enter into my sanctuary, and they shall come near to my table, to minister unto me, and they shall keep my charge. And it shall come to pass, that when they enter in at the gates of the inner court, they shall be clothed with linen garments; and no wool shall come upon them, while they minister in the gates of the inner court, and within. They shall have linen bonnets upon their heads, and shall have linen breeches upon their loins; they shall not gird themselves with anything that causes sweat.”

So no wool, no combination of wool and linen, and no unkosher snails blood! Can we clean this up a little?

Ariella Tiqvah

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