TYoAZ Parasha 30.3 (12/31/2011), Lev 18
Section / Tab / Verse / e-Sword / NotesTorah / 1 / Lev 18 / Lev 18:1 /
HafTorah / 2 / Eze 22:20-31 / Eze 22:20 /
Ahavta has Jer 10:2-21
Brit / 3 / 1Co 5:1-6:10 / 1Co 5:1
Epistle / 4 / Gal 3 / Gal 3:1
History / 5 / 2Sa 12 / 2Sa 12:1 / Standalone Aleph Tavs: 2Sa 12:9, 24; 2Sa 13:21-22, 32(2)
Torah - Lev 18
1 And YHVH spake unto Moses, saying, 2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, I am YHVH your Elohim. 3 After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do: and after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, shall ye not do: neither shall ye walk in their ordinances. 4 Ye shall do my judgments, and keep mine ordinances, to walk therein: I am YHVH your Elohim. 5 Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am YHVH. 6 None of you shall approach to any that is near of kin to him, to uncover their nakedness: I am YHVH. 7 The nakedness of thy father, or the nakedness of thy mother, shalt thou not uncover: she is thy mother; thou shalt not uncover her nakedness. 8 The nakedness of thy father's wife shalt thou not uncover: it is thy father's nakedness. 9 The nakedness of thy sister, the daughter of thy father, or daughter of thy mother, whether she be born at home, or born abroad, even their nakedness thou shalt not uncover. 10 The nakedness of thy son's daughter, or of thy daughter's daughter, even their nakedness thou shalt not uncover: for theirs is thine own nakedness. 11 The nakedness of thy father's wife's daughter, begotten of thy father, she is thy sister, thou shalt not uncover her nakedness. 12 Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father's sister: she is thy father's near kinswoman. 13 Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy mother's sister: for she is thy mother's near kinswoman. 14 Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father's brother, thou shalt not approach to his wife: she is thine aunt. 15 Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy daughter in law: she is thy son's wife; thou shalt not uncover her nakedness. 16 Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy brother's wife: it is thy brother's nakedness. 17 Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of a woman and her daughter, neither shalt thou take her son's daughter, or her daughter's daughter, to uncover her nakedness; for they are her near kinswomen: it is wickedness. 18 Neither shalt thou take a wife to her sister, to vex her, to uncover her nakedness, beside the other in her life time. 19 Also thou shalt not approach unto a woman to uncover her nakedness, as long as she is put apart for her uncleanness. 20 Moreover thou shalt not lie carnally with thy neighbor's wife, to defile thyself with her. 21 And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy Elohim: I am YHVH. 22 Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination. 23 Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith: neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto: it is confusion. 24 Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you: 25 And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants. 26 Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations; neither any of your own nation, nor any stranger that sojourneth among you: 27 (For all these abominations have the men of the land done, which were before you, and the land is defiled;) 28 That the land spue not you out also, when ye defile it, as it spued out the nations that were before you. 29 For whosoever shall commit any of these abominations, even the souls that commit them shall be cut off from among their people. 30 Therefore shall ye keep mine ordinance, that ye commit not any one of these abominable customs, which were committed before you, and that ye defile not yourselves therein: I am YHVH your Elohim.
The portion of Mitzvot from this Parsha
Verse(s) / MitzvahNumber / Category / Law
Lev 18:6 / 82 / Forbidden Sexual Relations / Not to indulge in familiarities with relatives, such as kissing, embracing, winking, skipping, which may lead to incest.
Lev 18:7 / 83 / Forbidden Sexual Relations / Not to commit incest with one's mother. See Prohibited Marriages and Illegitimate Children.
Lev 18:7 / 84 / Forbidden Sexual Relations / Not to commit sodomy with one's father.
Lev 18:8 / 85 / Forbidden Sexual Relations / Not to commit incest with one's father's wife. See Prohibited Marriages and Illegitimate Children.
Lev 18:9 / 86 / Forbidden Sexual Relations / Not to commit incest with one's sister. See Prohibited Marriages and Illegitimate Children.
Lev 18:9 / 87 / Forbidden Sexual Relations / Not to commit incest with one's father's wife's daughter. See Prohibited Marriages and Illegitimate Children.
Lev 18:10 / 88 / Forbidden Sexual Relations / Not to commit incest with one's son's daughter (Note: CC treats this and the next as one commandment; however, Rambam treats them as two). See Prohibited Marriages and Illegitimate Children.
Lev 18:10 / 89 / Forbidden Sexual Relations / Not to commit incest with one's daughter's daughter (Note: CC treats this and the previous as one commandment; however, Rambam treats them as two). See Prohibited Marriages and Illegitimate Children.
Lev 18:12 / 91 / Forbidden Sexual Relations / Not to commit incest with one's fathers sister. See Prohibited Marriages and Illegitimate Children.
Lev 18:13 / 92 / Forbidden Sexual Relations / Not to commit incest with one's mother's sister. See Prohibited Marriages and Illegitimate Children.
Lev 18:14 / 93 / Forbidden Sexual Relations / Not to commit incest with one's father's brothers wife. See Prohibited Marriages and Illegitimate Children.
Lev 18:14 / 94 / Forbidden Sexual Relations / Not to commit sodomy with one's father's brother.
Lev 18:15 / 95 / Forbidden Sexual Relations / Not to commit incest with one's son's wife. See Prohibited Marriages and Illegitimate Children.
Lev 18:16 / 96 / Forbidden Sexual Relations / Not to commit incest with one's brother's wife. See Prohibited Marriages and Illegitimate Children.
Lev 18:17 / 97 / Forbidden Sexual Relations / Not to commit incest with one's wife's daughter. See Prohibited Marriages and Illegitimate Children.
Lev 18:17 / 98 / Forbidden Sexual Relations / Not to commit incest with the daughter of one's wife's son. See Prohibited Marriages and Illegitimate Children.
Lev 18:17 / 99 / Forbidden Sexual Relations / Not to commit incest with the daughter of one's wife's daughter. See Prohibited Marriages and Illegitimate Children.
Lev 18:18 / 100 / Forbidden Sexual Relations / Not to commit incest with one's wife's sister. See Prohibited Marriages and Illegitimate Children.
Lev 18:19 / 101 / Forbidden Sexual Relations / Not to have intercourse with a woman, in her menstrual period.
Lev 18:20 / 102 / Forbidden Sexual Relations / Not to have intercourse with another man's wife.
Lev 18:22 / 103 / Forbidden Sexual Relations / Not to commit sodomy with a male.
Lev 18:23 / 104 / Forbidden Sexual Relations / Not to have intercourse with a beast.
Lev 18:23 / 105 / Forbidden Sexual Relations / That a woman shall not have intercourse with a beast.
Lev 18:3; Lev 20:23 / 332 / Idolatry, Idolaters and Idolatrous Practices / Not to adopt the institutions of idolaters nor their customs.
Lev 18:21 / 333 / Idolatry, Idolaters and Idolatrous Practices / Not to pass a child through the fire to Molech.
Haftorah - Eze 22:20-31
20 As they gather silver, and brass, and iron, and lead, and tin, into the midst of the furnace, to blow the fire upon it, to melt it; so will I gather you in mine anger and in my fury, and I will leave you there, and melt you. 21 Yea, I will gather you, and blow upon you in the fire of my wrath, and ye shall be melted in the midst therof. 22 As silver is melted in the midst of the furnace, so shall ye be melted in the midst thereof; and ye shall know that I YHVH have poured out my fury upon you. 23 And the word of YHVH came unto me, saying, 24 Son of man, say unto her, Thou art the land that is not cleansed, nor rained upon in the day of indignation. 25 There is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof, like a roaring lion ravening the prey; they have devoured souls; they have taken the treasure and precious things; they have made her many widows in the midst thereof. 26 Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they shewed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them. 27 Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain. 28 And her prophets have daubed them with untempered morter, seeing vanity, and divining lies unto them, saying, Thus saith the Lord GOD, when YHVH hath not spoken. 29 The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery, and have vexed the poor and needy: yea, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully. 30 And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none. 31 Therefore have I poured out mine indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath: their own way have I recompensed upon their heads, saith the Lord GOD.
Commentary - Year 2 Sabbath 39
Leviticus 18:1-30 -Jeremiah 10:2-21 -Psalm 83-1 Corinthians 5:1 - 6:10
Tevet 2, 5763 / Dec 7, 2002 - the eighth day of Hanukkah
Kislev 30, 5766 / Dec 31, 2005 - the sixth day of Hanukkah
K'maaseh Eretz/ The Practice in the Land
We are leaving the subject of Tabernacle / Temple regulations. This is the first chapter of Torah that deals with forbidden sexual relationships.
The beginning of this chapter is similar to the giving of the Ten Commandments. Moses, emanating the glow from being with God, speaks in the Name of God, saying, “I am Yahweh your God. . .You are to perform My (mishpatim) judgments and keep My (huqqot) statutes, to live in accord with them”.
This is a prophetic picture of the manner of “that prophet” to follow who must be heard – Yeshua, who came in the Name of Yahweh.
“18 I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen like you, and I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. 19 It shall come about that whoever will not listen to My words which he shall speak in My name, I Myself will require it of him.” – Deuteronomy 18:18-19.
Egypt, from where Israel was leaving, and Cannan, where they were going, were among the most decadent places in the world. God promised the land of Canaan to Israel, and would destroy the current inhabitants because of their sin. Israel was forbidden to follow either the practices of the Egyptians or the current Canaanites. God was commanding the establishment of a Holy People in a Holy Land. It was even forbidden (v.3) to make oneself look like the other people or follow their promiscuous practices. This includes that we are not to adopt any practices that are based upon other religions. (Other religions have many practices that are copies or corruptions of God’s regulations, so we must be careful not to think all similarities are based upon these other religions.)
V.4 “Keep My statutes, to live in accord with them; I am Yahweh your God”. Statutes are the commandments of which the reasons are beyond our understanding. They include kashrut (food laws) and ritual defilement. We are taught here that it is not for us to make personal decisions on such matters – which would make us our own gods. The Hebrew word huqqot (statutes) comes from the root huq, to engrave: many commentators have noted that this means God’s statutes are permanently engraved, as in stone.
God will ultimately establish a Holy People in a Holy Land. It will be through Yeshua. It will be by writing His law on their hearts, to be kept perfectly and whole heartedly. All sinners will be destroyed.
In the world today, evolution is the favorite replacement for God. If we just evolved, then let us eat, drink, and be merry. Let us seek all the pleasure we can find, for that is all there is to life, and then we die. We go back to the primordial soup, and perhaps in a few billion years we will evolve into something greater.
Unplanned children that complicate our pleasure, and the handicapped, and the elderly, can be disposed of, because there is no quality of life for them, and that is all that matters. (That is really an excuse, because most of them would like to live: but to hedonists, they are a bother.)
Long ago, God said (in effect) to a world of such people, “OK, you like primordial soup, I’ll give you soup,” and he opened up the hot-springs of the earth, along with the clouds above, and made them soup. Now, for those who will not learn from their lesson, there awaits a roasting in fire.
A much-talked-about subject today is, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” What good people? There has only been one good person to whom bad things happened, and we all know why. Our normal life span has been changed from eternal, to a thousand years, to seventy years – not because we are good people. Now, aren’t you joyful that you came out to hear how bad you are?
So, what is the point? Paul makes the point: God has included all as disobedient, that He might show His mercy (Romans 11:32); “He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit” – Titus 3:5.
(Jeremiah 10:2-3) “Thus says Yahweh, ‘Do not learn the way of the nations, and do not be terrified by the signs of the heavens although the nations are terrified by them; for the customs of the peoples are delusion.’ ”
(V.21) “The shepherds have become stupid and have not sought Yahweh; therefore they have not prospered, and all their flock is scattered.”
(Psalm 83:1) “O God, do not remain quiet; do not be silent and, O God, do not be still. 2 For, behold, Thine enemies make an uproar; and those who hate Thee have exalted themselves.”
These are the forbidden relationships enumerated in today’s Torah portion: (Verse 6 indicates (by the plural) that it applies to both men and women.)
mother or step-mother (even after death of father),
sister or half-sister,
aunt (even if half-sister of father, or uncle’s wife, even after death of uncle),
daughter-in-law,
sister-in-law,
wife’s sister – while your wife is alive (even if divorced from her),
and a neighbor’s wife.
Also forbidden are homosexuality and bestiality, and offering one’s children to false gods.
(1 Corinthians 5:1-2) “It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles . . . . And you have become arrogant, and have not mourned instead, in order that the one who had done this deed might be removed from your midst.”
(V.9-11) “Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Yeshua the Messiah, and in the Spirit of our God.”
Today it is popular to accept all religions as equal – all are falsely said to worship the same god. Laws and customs are being changed to accept fornication and homosexuality – we exalt open practitioners to highest offices. Dishonesty is largely accepted and even expected – the love of power and money rules.
But, if we are washed and made holy instruments for God, led of His Spirit, then we walk a different path, growing in understanding of Gods instruction. In times past we were Gentiles who walked according to the desires of the flesh; now we walk in the light, if so be that we are redeemed.
(1 John 2:4-6) “The one who says, ‘I have come to know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.’ ”
The member of the congregation who is blatantly defying God’s instruction is to be excommunicated. The purposes are to bring repentance, and to show others the seriousness of such actions. This action is not to be taken by the authority of an individual who carries some title, but by a duly chosen bench of judges, after entertaining proper witness.