Assemble them - Amounts

This weeks Parsha is titled Vayak'hel-Pekudei; Assemble them - Amounts. Also this week we read Parshat HaCodesh as this week we have the 1st day of the new ceremonial / religious year on Nisan 1 which is Tuesday.  The passage reads from Exodus 35:1 to 40:38 and 12:1 to 20  The Haftarah reading is Ezekiel 45:18 to 46:15 and 1 Kings 7:51 to 8:21 Psalm 34  (in the BCP Lectionary) From the Apostolic Writings / Newer Testament / Brit HaChadashah (in the BCP Lectionary), read Luke 15:11 to 32 

As ever this will be posted at cmjparsha.wordpress.com for debate. . . .

Last week we read about the uniform tax which was expected from every person, to pay towards the upkeep of the Mishkan and the Temple. This week we read about voluntary offerings. The Almighty specified that only those whose hearts were stirred should contribute. As we read in the Parsha everyones hearts were stirred, and they gave generously. How do we know that it was everyone? Because the tax only applied to men, whereas the offerings were brought also by women.

In this weeks Parsha we have the establishment of a weekly Torah service. And Moses assembled the entire congregation of the children of Israel, and said to them... a Sabbath of Sabbaths to G-d (35:1-2)  This teaches us that Moses instituted the practice to assemble on Shabbat to listen to the reading of the Torah. This we also see in Acts chapter 15 verse 21, where it is pointed out that those non-Jewish people who were coming to put their trust in Yeshua were already hearing Torah instruction regularly.
There is a lot of confusion among Christians regarding the Sabbath. As with many things, the Torah itself gives an instruction, with no How-To. This is true of Sabbath. We are told not to work on Sabbath; however we are given no guidance as to what constitutes work in the Torah itself. Is healing to be defined as work if ones occupation is healing? This is why we have Halakhah. (Literally the walking. This is the corpus of work which has taken more than 3,000 to compile and will never be finished not until the Messiah returns. Essentially, experts in the Torah consider whether various acts are Work; they consider what is kosher. For example the father of Dr Arnold Fruchtenbaum was on the Rabbinic panel which met in Russia to decide whether a tomato is kosher. We may laugh at this, but theyd never seen one before so it was far from straightforward. Thankfully for those of us who enjoy Italian food, it was decided that tomatoes are OK.)

So, for Sabbath and work. . . . . .  For an act to be considered work it must fall in to one or both of 3 criteria: it must be an act of creation (or by extension, an act of destruction), it must (or may be) an act associated with making ones living, or it must be an act which was necessary to be performed in the building or assembly of the Mishkan. Therefore we have a list of 39 activities which are considered to be work:

The 39 Melachot: sowing, ploughing, reaping, binding sheaves, threshing, winnowing, selecting, grinding, sifting, kneading, baking, shearing wool, washing wool, beating wool, dyeing wool, spinning, weaving, making two loops, weaving two threads, separating two threads, tying, untying, sewing two stitches, tearing, trapping, slaughtering, flaying, salting meat, curing hide, scraping hide, cutting hide up, writing two letters, erasing two letters, building, tearing a building down, extinguishing a fire, kindling a fire, hitting with a hammer, taking an object from the private domain to the public, or transporting an object in the public domain.

Melachot means strenuous acts. Even this list is quite sparse, and more definition is needed. There are therefore (according to some traditions) 39 sub-categories for each of the 39, making a total of 1521 definitions of work. This is seen by some as being hard and legalistic, but the opposite is true. It provides a freedom from every type of work one day out of every week. This is difficult for many Messianic Jews, as a lot of Messianic meetings, Israel-interest meetings and suchlike happen on Saturdays. There is no easy way around this, so please pray for Messianic Jews as we try to be more Observant and yet have these sometimes conflicting demands.
Often Yeshua is accused of having broken the Sabbath. However, if we look at the term reaping, we see that it doesn’t mean just a handful of corn, but a minimum of a whole ear; the same applies to threshing. Regarding the carrying of an object, the man who was told to take his bed and walk home was in all probability very local to the healing site. It is inconceivable that the Messiah would instruct a Jewish man to break the Sabbath, as that would make the man a sinner, and also the Messiah Himself.
However the wonderful story in Luke of the man whose son had been selfish and stupid gives us all hope. In spite of his sons sin in demanding from his father, thus breaking the command to show honour and respect to our parents; in spite of the horror with which the mans neighbours and friends saw him when he welcomed his son home; in spite of the justified anger of the younger brother, the man welcomes his son back into the home and honours his repentance. There is much we can learn about teshuvah. (Teshuvah literally means to return. It is the Hebrew term for repentance.)   Not just how we should repent, but how The Almighty responds to our repentance. No, we are not worthy to even be treated as servants, yet He chooses to welcome us and treat us not only as sons, but as honoured sons who have never sinned. Some call this justification; we are justified. . . . just if Id never sinned. Simplistic, tis true; but its not a bad illustration.
Dont let the gender-specific terms worry you; in some Biblical analogies we the Guf HaMoshiach (Body of the Messiah) are called the Bride of the Messiah.
As we welcome in another Sabbath, another month and another year, we are each welcomed at the dining table of The Creator Himself!

Shabbat Shalom!