Raeh (Weekly Portion) Deuteronomy 11:26-16:17 (1 August, 2013, Av 25, 5773)
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The Book of Deuteronomy says that, if we do good we shall be blessed and if we do bad then bad things will happen to us.
Raeh
The portion this week is called "Raeh" translated as BEHOLD
It extends from Deuteronomy 11:26-16:17.
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s.1 Deuteronomy 11:26-12:11
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Deuteronomy 11:
26 See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse:
27 the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I am commanding you today;
28 and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn from the way that I am commanding you today, to follow other gods that you have not known.
29 When the Lord your God has brought you into the land that you are entering to occupy, you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal.
30 As you know, they are beyond the Jordan, some distance to the west, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal, besides Alonei Moreh.
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Hebrew "Arabah" is plain.
Hebrew "Alonei Moreh" meaning "trees" or oaks of Moreh.
The Mountains of Gerizim and Ebal were just outside of the city of Schechem also known as Nablus. This region is in the territory of Ephraim or on the border area between Ephraim and Manasseh.
Half the tribes were to stand on the side of MOUNT GERIZIM and half of the tribes stood on the side of MOUNT EBAL, facing the others. The Ark of the Covenant with the priests and some of the Levites, stood in a valley between them (Deuteronomy 27:12-13).
This was carried out in the time of Joshua who succeeded Moses as the leader of Israel (Joshua 8:30-35).
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Deuteronomy 11:
31 When you cross the Jordan to go in to occupy the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and when you occupy it and live in it,
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When the Israelites entered the Land they had to have the intention to possess it. So too at present that should be the declared and conscious intention. The Arabs must be transferred elsewhere and Jews should take possession.
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Deuteronomy 11:
32 you must diligently observe all the statutes and ordinances that I am setting before you today.
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Taking the Land and confirming possession of it is dependent upon keeping the Torah.
See: Nachmanides: The Connection Between Law and Land
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Deuteronomy 12:
1 These are the statutes and ordinances that you must diligently observe in the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has given you to occupy all the days that you live on the earth.
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The Torah must be kept all your life and for all time, in each generation.
ALL THE DAYS THAT YOU LIVE UPON THE EARTH.
EARTH. Hebrew "Adamah".
Your ability to stay alive in this world is dependent upon keeping the Torah. The Torah ensures your survival. You have no other choice.
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Deuteronomy 12:
2 You must demolish completely all the places where the nations whom you are about to dispossess served their gods, on the mountain heights, on the hills, and under every leafy tree.
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All shreds of idolatry have to be extirpated.
We must hunt after them and uproot them (Rashi). Also within your own hearts and consciousness all pagan hang-ups and subconscious complexes must be eliminated.
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Deuteronomy 12:
3 Break down their altars, smash their pillars, burn their sacred poles with fire, and hew down the idols of their gods, and thus blot out their name from their places.
Even places that are named after foreign gods, sacred places, or modes of worship must be destroyed.
Deuteronomy 12:
4 You shall not worship the Lord your God in such ways.
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We must resist attempts by atheists and Jewish traitors who hate their own religion and seek to uproot it.
In the USA attempts to remove the Ten Commandments etc from court houses should be resisted. We need to protect all aspects of our Hebraic heritage that our ancestors consciously or subconsciously managed to incorporate into our civil affairs.
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Deuteronomy 12:
5 But you shall seek the place that the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes as his habitation to put his name there.
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Originally the Tabernacle took the Place of the Temple. The Place of the Tabernacle moved around. Once Jerusalem had been chosen and the Temple built there that was the place where the Almighty set HIS Name and it is the only place of worship wherein the Temple must be rebuilt.
The Tabernacle was at Shiloh for 369 years.
Today the Jewish settlement of Shiloh (near the Biblical site) a modern synagogue has been built in a style reminiscent of the original tabernacle.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Shilo_centr_synagogue.jpg
The Tabernacle was first set up in the Temple, from there it moved to Nob, and then to Gibeon, then to Jerusalem where it was replaced by the Temple.
We should seek the good of Jerusalem, look forward to the rebuilding of the Temple and support the State of Israel.
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s.2 Deuteronomy 12:12-28
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Deuteronomy 12:
13 Take care that you do not offer your burnt-offerings at any place you happen to see. 14But only at the place that the Lord will choose in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt-offerings and there you shall do everything I command you.
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When the Tabernacle was in the permanent locations of Shiloh and Jerusalem these were the only places where sacrifices were allowed. When it was not in these fixed places then it was permitted to set up a temporary altar and make sacrifices whithersoever one wished.
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Deuteronomy 12:
19 Take care that you do not neglect the Levite as long as you live in your land.
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The Levite was the guardian and the teacher. One tenth of all produce had to be set aside for the Levite. When Jeroboam from the Ten Tribes lead the break-away from Judah he set up two golden bull-calves and appointed non-Levites as priests. Consequently the Levites from all Israel moved to Judah (2-Chronicles 11:13-14).
The Brit-Am Movement is directed by our humble selves.
We do not consider ourselves Levis though we may be and in the past a strong early supporter of ours had an insight that we were or at least that our status was that of a Levi.
Anyway the Principle remains.
We are not priests or rabbis.
We do not really minister to you.
If any of you have personal issues or queries we are not amongst those you can refer to.
We also cannot teach you how to behave in specific matters.
What good then are we?
The Brit-Am Ten Tribes Movement can with a reasonable degree of certainty tell you who your ancestors were.
We can inform what at a communal national level your Biblical Identity is.
We can help enhance and intensify your Biblical Consciousness and Israelite Hebraic Awareness and prepare the groundwork for the same to apply across the nation.
In the Long Run this service of ours may be worth far more than anything else.
We are doing something.
We ourselves benefit from it and so can you.
Divine Providence has so ordered matters that the Brit-Am Movement is in need of your support, financially.
We might have preferred that this not be the case but such it is.
The requirement is made of you to step forward and do what you can.
Do not forsake us.
Send an offering to the Hebrew Nations/Brit-Am Movement
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Deuteronomy 12:
21 If the place where the Lord your God will choose to put his name is too far from you, and you slaughter as I have commanded you any of your herd or flock that the Lord has given you, then you may eat within your towns whenever you desire.
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#as I have commanded you #. They were to slaughter animals to eat their meat as they had been commanded. These are the Jewish Laws of Ritual Slaughter. They are based on the Oral Tradition.
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Deuteronomy 12:
24 Do not eat it; you shall pour it out on the ground like water. 25 Do not eat it, so that all may go well with you and your children after you, because you do what is right in the sight of the Lord.
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Kosher meat is more healthy and aesthetically more acceptable. Kosher slaughter is more humane. Kosher slaughter requires cutting the throat in one clean sweep without previous stunning and the like. In some parts of Europe kosher slaughtering is forbidden. They claim this is because they consider kosher slaughtering to be cruel but it is not. The motivations of countries that forbid kosher slaughtering are anti-Biblical and anti-Jewish. They have pretended pity on animals but they had little pity on the Jews during the Holocaust. They would also have little pity on you.
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Deuteronomy 12:
28 Be careful to obey all these words that I command you today, so that it may go well with you and with your children after you for ever, because you will be doing what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God.
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# you will be doing # In Hebrew "va-asita" i.e. you are commanded to do that which is GOOD AND RIGHT. The Sages quoted this verse when they enacted all kinds of rulings in monetary matters, property rights, and neighborhood regulations. The overriding principle is that one should endeavor to do good to others, to act with consideration towards your neighbors and workmates, to be a good citizen and at the least not to harm or interfere with the rights and living-space of others. Give yourselves some room and give room to your neighbors. Be reasonable and polite, and be fair.
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s.3 Deuteronomy 12:29-13:19
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Deuteronomy 12:
31 You must not do the same for the Lord your God, because every abhorrent thing that the Lord hates they have done for their gods. They would even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.
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Euthanasia and abortions have overtones of human sacrifice.
When fetuses are aborted they are burnt.
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Deuteronomy 12:
32 You must diligently observe everything that I command you; do not add to it or take anything from it.
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Avoid inventing new ways to keep the commandments.
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Deuteronomy 13:
5 But those prophets or those who divine by dreams shall be put to death for having spoken treason against the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery, to turn you from the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.
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A false prophet had to be put to death.
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Deuteronomy 13:
12 If you hear it said about one of the towns that the Lord your God is giving you to live in, 13 that scoundrels [children of Belial] , from among you have gone out and led the inhabitants of the town astray, saying, Let us go and worship other gods, whom you have not known, 14 then you shall inquire and make a thorough investigation. If the charge is established that such an abhorrent thing has been done among you,
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#BELIAL# What this means exactly is not certain.
It has been suggest that the term derives from the Hebrew "bli-Ol" i.e. without the yoke of heaven.
People who do not feat the God of Israel are liable to be come worshippers of idols.
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Deuteronomy 13:
15 you shall put the inhabitants of that town to the sword, utterly destroying it and everything in it, even putting its livestock to the sword.
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Members of a city who worshipped idols were considered legally Gentiles i.e. non-Israelites [VILNA GA'ON (end of SHENOS ELIYAHU to Zera'im)].
The Lost Ten Tribes also worshipped idols and after their exile received the temporary status of being non-Israelites (Yebamot 17) from a religious point of view. In the future however the Ten Tribes will return and be recognized once more as Israelites.
They will also be obligated in the future to Keep the Torah.
http://britam.org/malachi.html
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Malachi 4:
4 Remember the teaching of my servant Moses, the statutes and ordinances that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel.
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s.4 Deuteronomy 14:1-21
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There follows a list of clean animals that it is permitted to eat and unclean beasts that are forbidden.
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Deuteronomy 14:
1 You are children of the Lord your God. You must not lacerate yourselves or shave your forelocks for the dead.
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Deuteronomy 14:
21 You shall not eat anything that dies of itself; you may give it to aliens residing in your towns for them to eat, or you may sell it to a foreigner. For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. You shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk.
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This law is the basis for the Rabbinical Prohibition to not eat milk with meat. Many of those who are not familiar with the subject regard this extrapolation of the verse as ridiculous.
Fair enough.
If you are not-Jewish you are not obligated to eat Kosher foods anyway so it should not really matter to you one way or the other.
Nevertheless it could be justified from a health point of view.
It is also proven linguistically from an examination of the Hebrew expression used.
See:
Milk and Meat Mixing Prohibited!
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s.5 Deuteronomy 14:22-29
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Deuteronomy 14:
22 Set apart a tithe of all the yield of your seed that is brought in yearly from the field. 23In the presence of the Lord your God, in the place that he will choose as a dwelling for his name, you shall eat the tithe of your grain, your wine, and your oil, as well as the firstlings of your herd and flock, so that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always.
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There was an obligation to tithe. Two tithes were required. This resulted in the setting aside of ca. 20% of the agricultural produce that in those days was the main source of income. The second tithe in the 1st, 2nd, 4th, and 5th years of the seven year cycle of the tithes however was actually for the use of the person making the tithe and for his family to be eaten in Jerusalem. In the 3rd and 6th year this tithe was given to the poor, to the resident aliens, and/or to the Levites in addition to the first tithe that they already received.
Tithing was to the benefit of those who did it. The purpose of tithing was to bring a blessing.
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Malachi 3:
8 Will anyone rob God? Yet you are robbing me! But you say, 'How are we robbing you?' In your tithes and offerings! 9You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you! 10Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in my house, and thus put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts; see if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you an overflowing blessing.
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One should give tithes. Through tithing it is promised a blessing will be given.
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Deuteronomy 14:
22 Set apart a tithe of all the yield of your seed that is brought in yearly from the field.
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#that is brought in... from the field#. Hebrew "HaYotseh" also understandable as implying that the increase that comes forth year after year is by virtue of the tithes we give from it!
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s.6 Deuteronomy 15:1-18
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Every seventh year was Shemittah i.e. the Sabbatical Year in which agricultural work in the Land of Israel was forbidden and all debts were forgiven.
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Deuteronomy 15:
11 Since there will never cease to be some in need on the earth, I therefore command you, Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbour in your land.
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We then have the law of an "Eved Ivri" or Hebrew slave who was not really a slave but more like an indentured servant for a limited period of time.
This institution existed until recently in the British Empire.
May of the early settlers of the USA were actually indentured servants.
Brit-Am Now no. 1277
http://britam.org/now/1277Now.html#Indentured
#5. Indentured Servitude: Were Some of Our Ancestors Virtually Slaves?
Indentured Servitude. Wikipedia Extracts
#In addition to African slaves, Europeans, including Irish,[3] Scottish,[4] English, and Germans, were brought over in substantial numbers as indentured servants,[5] particularly in the British Thirteen Colonies.[6] Over half of all white immigrants to the English colonies of North America during the 17th and 18th centuries may have been indentured servants.[7]#
Often these indentured servants were virtual slaves and at times were treated worse than African slaves who were more expensive. Not only that but Irish and Scottish Highlanders who had rebelled agaisnt the British on several occasion were sold into actual slavery.
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s.7 Deuteronomy 15:19-16:17
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The first born of the farm animals had to be dedicated as a sacrifice.
The feasts of Pesach, Succot, and Shevuoth had to be kept.We were commanded to be happy with our family on those days (especially Succoth) and worship God.
We were also commanded to remember that we had been slaves in Egypt and should empathize with others less fortunate than ourselves.
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Haftara - Isaiah (Yeshayahu) 54:11-55:5
http://www.britam.org/IsaiahSummary51to55.html
The Ten Tribes in the Isles will anticipate the Almighty. The Ten Tribes must realize who they are and acknowledge the Almighty. The Jews bore the sins of others and were blamed for the faults of the Gentiles. The Messiah will be a descendant of David from the Tribe of Judah. Everything can be made better than it is. We must believe in our own potential to do good to ourselves and to others.
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