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Acharei-K’dosheem
(“After” and “Holy ones”)
- You Are To Be Holy
Our
parashot for this Shabbat (there are, again, two)
are entitled Acharei, meaning “after”“
and K’dosheem “holy ones”. These
readings cover Leviticus chapters sixteen through
twenty.
The subject
matter of chapter 16 is Yom Kippur - the Day of
Atonement, the most solemn and significant day
of the year in Israel’s calendar. It was
on this day, and this day alone that the High
Priest was permitted to enter the Most Holy Place
to make atonement for the sins of all Israel.
The manner and number of sacrifices was very specific,
and the ritual preparations the High Priest had
to make before daring to enter the Most Holy Place
were considerable. Two goats, according to rabbinical
tradition as nearly identical as possible (to
be understood as two aspects of one and the same
Yom Kippur sacrifice), were chosen by lot. One
of the goats was sacrificed there at the Temple
by the High Priest. The other goat was called
the Azazel (scapegoat, or “the one to be
sent away”). The High Priest would lay his
hands on the head of the Azazel and confess over
it all the sins of the people of Israel. The goat
was then to be led away into the wilderness by
a man who stood ready for just that task.
The imagery
is wonderful - the symbolic transference of our
collective sin onto an innocent one, resulting
in its death, its innocence simultaneously transferred
to us, resulting in our continued life. Bearing
our guilt, the innocent one goes away - far away
to its death. The Psalmist wrote of this idea:
“The Lord has not dealt with us according
to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our
iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above
the earth, so great is His loving-kindness toward
those who fear Him. As far as the east is from
the west, so far has He removed our transgressions
from us” (Psalm 103:12). Yom Kippur illustrates
the infinite separation between a holy and just
God and we sinful human beings, and so clearly
demonstrates why Messiah Yeshua, the Innocent
One, the Sinless One, had to die in our place.
“All of us like sheep have gone astray,”
the prophet Isaiah wrote (700 years beforehand!),
“each of us has turned to his own way; But
the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to
fall on Him. (Isaiah 53:5). His taking the penalty
for our sin accomplishes both the demand of God’s
infinite justice, and yet at the same time shows
His infinite mercy towards us. Aren’t you
glad we don’t get what we deserve?
Leviticus
chapter 17 concerns the sanctity of blood and
the prohibition against our eating it or offering
it in any manner other than within God’s
stated guidelines - this under penalty of death!
The reference to unauthorized sacrifices alludes
to our not having thus far separated ourselves
from the pagan ways of Egypt. The Lord decries
our sacrifices to what are called in verse 7 “goat
demons”. The point is that blood is sacred.
It is life! And the payment for life requires
life - a blood sacrifice, but only in God-approved
ways. The life principle is also why blood was
not to be eaten - neither then, nor in the New
Covenant. Acts chapter 15 places only four demands
upon Gentile followers of Yeshua, but this is
one of them.
Chapters
18-20 contain prohibitions on pagan religious
rites and on illicit sexual activity. We are forbidden,
for example, from going to mediums or practicing
any sort of divination or sorcery. We are prohibited
from cutting or tattooing your body or cutting
the edges of our beard in bizarre ways. These
were activities associated with worship of the
dead - something with which the Egyptians were
quite preoccupied. We are forbidden from engaging
in adultery, incest, bestiality and homosexuality.
We are forbidden from child sacrifice. These practices
are decried by God as abominable and perverse,
and the penalty for them according to this, God’s
covenant, was death. In fact, God warned us repeatedly
that it was on account of just such practices
that He was driving out the Canaanites. Illicit
sexual activity and pagan religious rites were
also prohibited in the decision of the Jerusalem
Council in Acts 15.
Chapters
19-20 focus on the demand for and the definition
of holiness. God calls us to be His holy people,
and that means there are some things we are required
to do, and other things we are forbidden to do.
In these chapters holiness includes reverence
for God, reverence for one’s parents, faithful
observance of the Sabbath and compassion towards
the poor. In these same chapters, holiness precludes
stealing, swindling, lying, using God’s
name for false oaths, oppressing others (including
withholding wages due those who work for us),
mockery of those with disabilities, or seizing
on others’ disabilities to gain an advantage.
A holy people were not to pay out bribes nor accept
bribes, not to pervert the judicial process, not
to slander others nor devise ways to harm others.
Holiness forbids prostitution, forbids spiritism,
even forbids our harboring grudges against others.
Holiness
also means recognizing God-ordained separations:
men are men and women are women, and we are not
to blur that distinction, either in our manner
of dress nor in sexual union. For that matter,
we are not to interbreed different animals, nor
plant two different kinds of crops in the same
field, nor wear clothes made of mixed fabrics.
God was teaching Israel, and is teaching us the
principal of separation - holiness. The created
order is God’s created order, and holiness
demands we respect what He has done and not suppose
we can do better.
The parashot
end with these words: Thus you are to be holy
to Me, for I the Lord am holy; and I have set
you apart from the peoples to be Mine. If holiness
seems demanding, it is only because God has our
well-being in mind. He knows that without holiness,
not only will we not see Him, but our lives and
society itself will quickly disintegrate, and
He loves us too much to let that happen without
a warning. The question is: are you hearing His
warning?
Shalom,
Rabbi Glenn
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