As we look at the things that were commanded in the ancient past of the religion of Israel and compare it to what is done today, we find major differences. Whether they are acceptable or “off the derech” is up to the individual to sort out. But let me ask a few questions of you!
We are currently at the time of Passover and there are a lot of things that don’t line up when reading the passages in the Tenakh that define what was commanded to be done and what was done in the original instance.
The past few days I have been thinking about several of these things. I wrote an article about leaven, arranged a wave sheaf on the dining table as a reminder of what was required on the first day of unleavened bread. My husband gathered wild barley from an open field near us here in Israel. We will plan to wave it and break off some of the grains.
Some would say, but there is no Temple, so you can’t do this! But a close look at the passages concerning Passover show that the barley sheaf which was only to be gathered “in the land” was not connected to the temple.
The article I wrote was mainly about leaven vs fermentation (see it here). When a follower on my website, commented that there was more to look at, for example, the lamb sacrifice, I did a retake.
The lamb sacrifice was originally done in Egypt without a Temple. It was done by individual families and did not require a priest to officiate! Correct! But the excuse we have heard for years is that we don’t do any of this without a Temple. Maybe we have been wrong about this!
What would happen if families got together and sacrificed a lamb on the 14th day of Aviv (Nissan)? That is a scary thought! What does the lamb sacrifice mean anyway? Does it have anything to do with killing the abomination of the Egyptians, which is idolatry? Does it mean that we are to cleanse out all idolatry before taking part in Passover? And what is Passover anyway, other than a commemoration of the leaving of Egypt? What about the call to leave Babylon? –the galute? Or do we even consider that the Jews (Israelites) should have abandoned all these places long ago?
From my contemplation of the lamb sacrifice, what seems to appear is that its purpose was to rid ourselves of the idolatry imposed upon us by Egypt (the nations), actually bringing us to a cleansing. Why do many Jews prefer to live in other nations? Do they/we love the way the nations live? Why were so many rules about Halakha created to keep Jews as a separate and often strange people, allowing us to continue outside the land? Basically, why do the nations not respect us? Is it because we have added so much to the law of our God that we are unrecognizable as a pure and holy nation? Would we be able to continue in the diaspora if we only accepted the laws given on Sinai? Except for one thing, you can’t really follow Torah outside the land. Many of those laws aresignificant only in Israel. I mean how can you enforce the rule to not eat fruit from your trees until the fourth year when you buy fruit from a big supermarket in Europe or America? How do you know it has been harvested correctly? How do you wave the barley sheaf when it is clearly an Israeli harvest which is specified? But again, these laws and many others were for Jews in their homeland–Israel!
But back to Passover and the lamb…
What if we began to sacrifice a lamb on Passover? That is a scary thought, but with the Temple out of the picture, what prevents it as a command which should be practiced? I can’t imagine the pain it would cause me if I had to kill an innocent lamb! If people had to do this every year, would it make them think? And consider what it means to get rid of the leavening before the 7 days of the week of Unleavened Bread. Yeast is that which inflates, changes the nature (the truth) about the kernel of the grain used for bread baking. Is it possible that the yeast is what has happened to the Word of YHVH in changing it to an inflated law that requires years of Yeshiva to study and learn it? So the requirements of Passover and Unleavened Bread may be a way to get back to the real Torah of YHVH, and more than just a memorial!
Happy Peshach and Unleavened Bread!
Ezekiel 11:17: “Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord YHVH: I will gather you from the peoples, and assemble you out of the countries where ye have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.”
Ariella
