Torah Portion – Week 49 (25-26)
Deut 21:10 – 25:19
Key Tetze– “When you go” – Covering many of the ‘hard to answer’ questions in Torah.
Ch. 21
21:11 – “Desire” (love, not lust) – Strongs (Compare with ‘lust’ type of desire – Strongs)
21:15 – Is it inevitable to have two wives and one be hated and the other loved? – Verse
- Two wives today? – Verses
- Two sons today
21:17 – Reuben, right was his, but passed on through transgression?
21:21 – If this rebellious, stubborn drunkard were to procreate, what would his offspring be like? “cut off the evil from you”. Like a dead branch on a tree or plant – Verses
- Sirach
- This means the parent is constantly fixing the damage caused by the child’s behavior.
If you never discipline a child, you will spend your life cleaning up the mess he creates. - Think of it like saying today:
“Parents who never say no end up bailing their kids out of trouble forever.” - “His feelings will be troubled at every cry”
This describes a parent who is emotionally controlled by the child. - Every complaint, every tantrum, every crisis disturbs him because the child has never learned restraint.
21:23 – Curse – Verse
Ch. 22
22:4 – Think of how you can love your neighbor in other ways? – Loving even enemies – Verses
22:5 – If crossdressing is an abomination, what is transgenderism? (nevertheless…) – Verses
- Wearing pants??
22:6-7 – restrained use of creation rather than exploitation (protecting, sustaining life) – verses
- “it may be well with you” (big promise)
- Farming practices
- Business practices
- Stewardship of land, animals, or people.
- How employers treat workers
- How people treat animals
- How leaders use authority
- Gentleness/respect for motherhood
- Avoid total extraction (gleaning of fields for poor…)
22:8 – Parapet/battlement – Pic
- This precept can apply to many areas of life (this is how he communicates) – Verse
- If you create a space where people live or gather, you are responsible to remove preventable dangers
- You are responsible not only for what you do, but for dangers you allow to remain.
- Exo 21(example)
22:9 – Consider a much greater precept here – Verses
22:10 – Both are beast of burden, they tread differently and at different speeds – Verse
22:11 – Specifically wool (animal) & linen (plant)
22:12 – Tzitzit command (men and women) – Verse
22:19 – Spreading false reports (repaying the damage) – Sirach 28
22:22-24 – Why Yahusha didn’t stone the woman – Verses
- Put away the evil
22:26 – Rape = Murder (Exo 22 parallel)
22:28-29 – Fornication = you must marry and cannot get divorced. (this is not rape)
Ch. 23
23:1-2 – This law wasn’t meant to exclude these people from society or faith. It was meant to discourage illegitimate births by preventing those individuals from holding positions of authority.
23:4 – A new way through Yahusha & Promise through obedience – Verses
23:7 – Don’t hate (me, even if I am an Edomite), but love and let go!
23:11 – Why at evening? The next day?
23:14 – Cleanliness in Torah
23:15-16 – Take in the refugee
23:18 – Dirty money from dirty deeds cannot be cleansed by offering it/vowing to YHWH
23:19 – Usury is part of the Ezekiel decree – Verses
23:22-23 – Ecc 5
23:25 – Yahusha and his disciples did not break Torah (there’s also no command not to heal on the sabbath) – Verses
Ch. 24
24:1-4 –
- Potv video
- YHWH may hate divorce, but had to use it himself
- Spiritual adultery vs. physical (uncleanness) – Eze 23:29 (uncleanness/nakedness)
24:6 – both pieces, nether (lower) and upper millstone was needed to be able to mill – literally part of their ability to have food/income. Don’t be like a loan-shark/gangster (breaking kneecaps and taking millstones)
24:9 – Talking about Moses behind his back (this should put us all in fear of Yahuah)
24:11 – Respectful, not rough
24:12-13 – Supporting verses
24:16 – Consider the father’s actions impact the children nonetheless
24:20 – frugality uses money carefully and wisely, while miserliness hoards money selfishly and refuses to spend even when it is right or necessary
23:end – Care for the poor and be generous – don’t forget where you came from – Verses
Ch. 25
25:1-3 – An assembly without consequences is set up for failure (we don’t whip…)
25:4 – Verses for practical application today
25:9 – Shoe loosed from his foot. Origin: Testament of Zebulon 1:7-23
25:11-12 – The law prohibits a woman from injuring a man’s reproductive organs during a fight, treating it as a severe assault because it threatens his ability to have children and continue his family line
25:15 – Must be fully upright in all our business dealings
- Honest financial dealings: Modern “false weights” might look like:
- charging for work not actually done
- hiding defects when selling something
- manipulating invoices or estimates
- exaggerating hours worked
- A just weight today means:
- transparent pricing
- honest estimates
- paying fair wages
- honoring agreements
- Consistent moral standards
25:18 – Still happening today
Season of life