The Kingdom of Heaven – Maljut haShamaim

by with No Comment Biblical StudiesVideo Blog

Just as there are kingdoms and empires in this world which are born, expand, and ultimately pass away, there is also in contrast a kingdom that is eternal –  the kingdom of God.

The term “the Kingdom of Heaven” is famous in Christianity since it is used by Yeshua throughout his ministry – from exhorting people to “become little children” in order to enter it (Mt 18:3); comparing it to a treasure hidden in a field (Mt 13:44) or a mustard seed (Mt 13:31); to even talking about how the halakhic rules would be within the Kingdom (Mt 22:29).

What many people do not know is that this term, “Malchut haShamaim” (the kingdom of heaven), and the term “Malchut Elohim” (the kingdom of God; sometimes “Malchut Shaddai”), were terms widely used in the Jewish temporal context in which Yeshua lived.

The Roman Empire had complete sovereignty over the land of Israel and economically oppressed the people through tribute (i.e., taxes) to the emperor. Dissident Jews who decided to refuse or even question those authoritarian imperialist regulations were crushed by the Roman military arm, and their bodies were displayed on crucifixes as an example for others so that everyone would think twice before rebelling or questioning their authority. The Zealots were a dissident group, mentioned in the New Testament, who fought against the Roman authorities, hoping to regain Jewish autonomy, just as the Maccabees fought against the Greeks a couple of centuries before.

A thought, rooted in biblical doctrine, became popular during that time: just as there are kingdoms and empires in this world which are born, expand, and ultimately pass away, there is also in contrast a kingdom that is eternal –  the kingdom of God.

A very clear picture of this appears in the interpretation of King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream given by Daniel in the second chapter of his book: In the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, and this kingdom will not be left to another people. It will crush all these kingdoms and bring them to an end but will itself endure forever.

Israel’s Biblical Diet

by with No Comment Biblical Studies

Many people believe that the instructions regarding food appeared when Moshe received the Torah at Mount Sinai, but actually, this is not true.

Every living creature will be food for you; as I gave the green plants, I have given you everything. However, you must not eat meat with its lifeblood in it. Genesis 9:3-4

Many people believe that the instructions regarding food appeared when Moshe received the Torah at Mount Sinai, but actually, this is not true. Genesis 9 clearly tells us that Noah already knew which animals were clean and unclean.

Why did Noah bring seven pairs of clean animals on the ark? The answer is obvious. After the flood, it was going to take some time for the earth to recover and produce fruit again. The clean animals were necessary to offer the relevant sacrifices before Yehovah, and they would also most likely provide food for Noah and his family until everything was restored. 

Notice that it was not until after Noah left the ark that Yehovah told him that he could eat “every living creature” (Genesis 9:3), as well as green plants, which had already been given as food to Adam.

What did Noah understand with those words? When Yehovah told him “every living creature“ he was NOT saying: “everything that swims, crawls, runs, and flies you can take to the pot.” Rather he was authorizing him to consume those animals that Yehovah had declared edible.

These are some aspects that although not explicitly found in the text, we can infer: the instruction is really limited to those animals on the list already known by Noah.

What is an Omer?

by with 2 Comments Biblical StudiesVideo Blog

Shalom Torah fans.

Many of you may have heard the term Omer but perhaps have no idea what it means. Others know that it is something that represents the days that we count between Passover and Shavuot, but may not have an idea of what the word originally means. And this is what we will learn in this audio blog.

If you have been celebrating the Biblical Feasts for at least a year, you have probably noticed that one of the most important Feasts, in fact, one of the three so-called Pilgrimage Feasts in which every man had to go up to Jerusalem, is the Feast of Shavuot. This is called Pentecost, or Feast of weeks (Shavuot means weeks). What is unusual about this Feast is that its celebration does not fall on a specific day of the Biblical calendar, but rather it is celebrated on the fiftieth (50th) day of what is usually called “the counting of the Omer” (s’firat haOmer in Hebrew).

Why is it called “the counting of the Omer”, and what is an Omer?

The best place to start our search is in Leviticus 23.

“Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye are come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring the sheaf of the first-fruits of your harvest unto the priest” (Leviticus 23:10).

The word sheaf in Hebrew is Omer (עֹמֶר), and we are talking about the Omer of the “first fruits”. This is an important detail, since it determines the moment in which the seven weeks began to be counted, which is from the day the first fruits were presented.

This is why we call it “the counting of the Omer.” It could also be called “the count (of the days) from the offering of the Omer (of the first fruits)”.

We now understand why it is called the counting of the Omer, but we still need to understand what an Omer is.

The simple answer would be that it was a unit of measurement that was used in biblical times. As in our days, there were then ways to quantify measures of length, weight and liquids among others. An Omer is part of the measurement to quantify the volume of dry things, such as a measure of flour for an offering, or, in this case, the amount of barley that had to be presented on the day of first fruits.

An Omer was one tenth of an ephah (Exodus 16:36). Another known measure was the se’á, which was one-third of an ephah. An ephah is approximately 22 liters in modern measurements. Note: Although liters is a unit of measure for liquids, it is also used in modern times to determine the volume of something, for example, the space in a travel backpack. In the same way, the measurement of the Omer refers to “the amount of something” according to the capacity of a container of an Omer (the weight can be different according to the density of different elements).

The first time this word appears in Scripture is in Exodus 16:16, where the word Omer was not even translated in some versions of the Bible (!!!):

“This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Gather as much of it as each person needs to eat. You may take two quarts (an Omer) per individual, according to the number of people each of you has in his tent.”

As we count down the 49 days of the counting of the Omer, we also remember the manna that Yehovah fed the children of Israel with, from which each family took exactly one measure of an Omer per day.

In a more spiritual sense, the counting of these 50 days represents a conciliation between the individual and the Creator. This can be correlated to the bible passage regarding the children of Israel that traveled from Egypt to Mount Sinai. They were slaves, representing the lowest spiritual level; upon reaching their destination they heard the voice of the Almighty himself – the highest spiritual level that can be reached. During these days of the counting of the Omer, it is a great opportunity for each of us to get in tune with this ascending path of personal and spiritual development.

Mitzraim – The meaning of slavery in Egypt

by with One Comment Biblical StudiesVideo Blog

We understand reality through polar opposites. We can say that something is bad because we compare it to the concept of what is good, we can think that someone is cruel because we know what compassion is…

One of the most prominent topics in the Scriptures is the subject of slavery. This is not because slavery itself is important, but because liberation from slavery is most significant.

All concepts in this existence are based on duality. As early as Genesis 1 with the concepts of heaven and earth, light and darkness, day and night… Adam himself was conditioned to understand reality based on duality when he ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

To this day, no matter who you are or what background you come from, we understand reality through polar opposites. We can say that something is bad because we compare it to the concept of what is good, we can think that someone is cruel because we know what compassion is, we appreciate something as beautiful because we can conceive the concept of what is horrible.

In the same way, in the biblical story, we are taught about freedom, based on what slavery is and what it represents. The children of Israel understood freedom through slavery. There are those who say, especially those who have been deprived of their liberty, that one cannot know what liberty is at all unless he has been deprived of it first.

Mitzraim (מִצְרָיְם) was one of the sons of Ham (Gen 10:6), and is the Hebrew word for Egypt. However, this word has a deeper meaning that reveals the biblical understanding of what slavery means, as well as freedom.

Breaking down the Hebrew word, we see that the “im” at the end of Mitzraim indicates the plural form of the word. In the singular, it would be matzor (מָצוֹר). Interestingly, Egypt is referred to in this way in certain places, such as Isaiah 37:25:

“I dug wells and drank water. I dried up all the streams of Egypt (matzor- מָצוֹר) with the soles of my feet.”

A matzor in Hebrew is a siege when an army surrounds a town or city before attacking it – usually to prevent supplies from coming in.

Matzor, comes from the root tzar (צָר) which means narrow. The pressure that an army applies to a besieged people has to do with this idea. Tzar is also related to the suffering that can be experienced.

Tzorer is the word generally translated as enemy, but it also comes from this root and would be better translated as “one who causes tzar”, one who causes pain or suffering.

One of the Hebrew words for rock is tzur (צוּר). This word is used a lot in the Psalms when David says “Yehovah is my rock.” The word tzur, once again, comes from the same root as all of these words. In this case, the idea of ​​pressure or the concept of something narrow has to do with the conditions in which this stone was formed under the ground. 

Tzur in Hebrew has to do with a specific stone, although this detail is lost in translation. In English, it is called flint, which is one of the hardest stones in existence, used to make tools and weapons in the stone age.

With all this, we have enough material to meditate on the concept of where the children of Israel were when they suffered during the period of slavery in Mitzraim, Egypt.

Suffering is not necessarily physical, but mental. In this world, the strongest chains and limitations are in our mind. Emotions like worry or anxiety make us feel as if we are in a narrow place. In appearance, we have already left Egypt and were freed from physical slavery, but how many of us can say that we are free in our mind?

This is the truth that Yeshua preached, when he taught:

“Come to Me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. All of you, take up My yoke and learn from Me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls..” Matthew 11:28-29