Clean & Unclean Animals (pdf)
Shimini Slides (pdf)
Sh’mini Notes (PDF)
Let’s review where we are in the Torah Cycle: Yehovah has redeemed Israel from her Egyptian bondage by means of miraculous signs and wonders and has delivered them to Mt Sinai where He proposed marriage in the form of a Covenant. All the people agreed and, while Moses was on the mountain finalizing the Covenant with Yehovah, Israel was at the foot of the mountain committing adultery by worshipping the Golden Calf. Yehovah then imposed additional “laws” (Israel never agreed to them) upon covenant-breaking Israel to postpone the death penalty that resulted from breaking that Covenant. It should be noted here that obeying the Covenant conditions and the “laws” are NOT salvation issues. Both were given to a people who were already redeemed; we, as Believers, keep these ordinances and “laws” not to save us but as our response to Yehovah’s love for us.
The Book of Exodus ended with the completion of the Tabernacle; it started out as the place to hold the Book of the Covenant under Yehovah’s watchful eye, but turned into the center of the Levitical Priesthood where the imposed “additional laws” would be carried out. And starting with the Book of Leviticus we are told the operating procedures for this Levitical Priesthood. The first eight chapters were instructions concerning the Sacrificial System; in the previous Portion we saw the beginning of the consecration of Aaron & his sons, and it ended with them in the Tabernacle for the seven-day period of consecration.
One final note: there are many examples of Chiastic structure in the Bible. For those who are not familiar with that term, it is a way of organizing thoughts in a symmetrical way. Within a group of verses, the first and last verse have the same (or opposing) thought; the second verse and second to last verse have the same (opposing) thought, and so on. They all point to the central verse which is the central thought of the passage. I show this in the first four slides here: https://torahnotes.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Vayikra-Slides.pdf Notice that Torah has a form of Chiastic structure, and the Book of Leviticus is even more obvious. The first 15 chapters show us how to achieve holiness; chapters 17-27 show us how to maintain holiness. The central chapter (16) is the annual act of holiness – the Yom Kippur service. The theme of Leviticus is, “Be holy, for I Am holy” (Lev 11:44&45; 19:2; 20:7&26: 21:8; 22:23). So next week’s Portion concludes the ‘preparation’ portion of Leviticus and the following Portion shows the action of holiness (Yom Kippur).
Overview of Sh’mini (“Eighth”) Leviticus 9:1 – 11:47
The Portion begins with “on the eighth day” (Shmini) referring to the day after the Priests’ seven day consecration period in the Tabernacle. Up to this point in Leviticus, we have been given a long list of “laws” concerning the Sacrificial System. But last week the action started up again with the consecration of Aaron and his sons. Here is the timeline: Exodus ended with Moses setting up the Tabernacle on the first day of the first month (Ex 40:2); then we are given instructions concerning the sacrifices (outside of the timeline); and then the actual consecration begins (on the second day of the first month) with animal sacrifices and Aaron & sons entering the Tabernacle for seven days (which will end on the 9th day of the first month). This week’s Portion starts on the next day – the day after the seven-day consecration in the Tabernacle – this is the 10th day of the first month…the day that the Passover lambs would be selected by each family (Ex 12:3). Keep this significant date in mind as we study this Portion.
Chapters 9 The Offerings for the Priests
The Hebrew word that is translated as ‘consecrate’ is maleh, meaning ‘to fill up’. In the course of serving Yehovah, the Priests would come before Him and be filled with His Presence and His Spirit; and as Priests in the New Covenant Melchizidek Priesthood, we come before Yehovah and He fills us.
This consecration service has the same form as the Yom Kippur service; first Aaron offered a Sin Offering for his own sins (along with a Burnt Offering); then a Sin Offering for the people; and then Burnt, Peace and Meal Offerings were made. Notice that all other offerings must be preceded by the Sin Offering; Yehovah will not accept anything from us until we confess and repent of our sins.
When all of the sacrifices had been made, then and only then did Yehovah acknowledge those offerings by sending fire from heaven to consume the Burnt Offering. This is reminiscent of Elijah and the Prophets of Ba’al that we read about in I Kings 18:1-40.
When the Tabernacle had been completed at the end of the Book of Exodus, Moses could not enter it because the process was not complete. The Priests had not been consecrated because the Sacrificial System had not yet been given. But now all that has happened and the Tabernacle was open for business!
Chapter 10 The Deaths of Nadav & Avihu
The narrative continues with the story of Aaron’s two eldest sons, Nadav & Avihu, when they brought “profane fire” into the Most Holy Place. We are not told exactly what that fire was, but the point is that what they did was not according to Yehovah’s instruction. So Yehovah sent fire from His dwelling place above the Mercy Seat and devoured both of them. It was not a normal type of fire because it destroyed their flesh but had no effect on their clothing – their cousins removed their lifeless bodies by carrying them in their intact garments. This detail has led me to consider that the ‘fire’ that Yehovah used was an enormous electrical discharge (from the Ark of the Covenant and Mercy Seat) that killed their flesh but did not harm their clothing…but just interesting speculation. Neither Aaron nor his two remaining sons could retrieve the bodies because contact with death would have disqualified them from Tabernacle service during the seven- day purification period…and they would not have been able to officiate at the Passover offerings that were just four days away.
We see that Moses prohibited Aaron and his remaining two sons from mourning their loss in the customary way; to do so would also disqualify them from Tabernacle service. Instead, the whole House of Israel would mourn for them. This may sound cruel (particularly in light of the way Middle-Eastern people mourn their dead) but this is Yehovah’s way of maintaining holiness. We Believers are called to be set apart …to be holy; and this is an example of just how difficult it can be.
Moses then told Aaron to continue the consecration process by eating the remnant of the Offerings in the Holy Place. Afterward, he discovered that Aaron had not eaten the remnant of the Sin Offering goat (as required in Leviticus 6:26) and asked him why he had failed to follow the procedure. Aaron answered, “’Look, this day they have offered their sin offering and their burnt offering before the Lord, and such things have befallen me! If I had eaten the sin offering today, would it have been accepted in the sight of the Lord?’ So when Moses heard that, he was content.” In other words, this was Aaron’s form of grieving the loss of his sons that would not disqualify him from Tabernacle service. His two oldest sons had become the Burnt Offering and even if he had followed procedure and eaten the Sin Offering, his heart was not in the right place and Yehovah would not have honored that act. So he chose not to eat of the goat of the Sin Offering…and Moses accepted that.
Before we leave this chapter, please notice in the Power Point slides the importance of verse 16; this is the middle point in Torah. Counting all the words in Torah, the mid-point falls between the two words drosh drash, which literally means ‘study, study’, and is translated diligently study. So the commandment ‘to study’ is the focal point of Torah! And we are fulfilling that today with this study!!
Chapter 11 Clean & Unclean
Tis 47-verse chapter gives the details of clean and unclean animals; I have summarized them in the attachment on the web site and won’t spend time here to review them – you can do that on your own. So the question here is: “Does this apply to us Believers today?” I’m not going to tell anyone what they should eat to honor Yehovah – that can only be spiritually discerned. What I will say is that Yehovah gave Adam & Eve dietary instructions (fruit of the trees) in the Garden…and they disobeyed. He then gave them additional instruction after the Fall (fruit of the trees and the herb of the field). Then after the Flood, He expanded these dietary instructions to include animals…but only animals that eat fruit of the trees and the herbs of the fields. This list here, in the middle of “The Law”, gives specific examples of clean animals (eating only fruit and herbs) versus the unclean (scavengers and meat-eaters). If you are not keeping clean animals in your diet, then I would ask you to seek the Holy Spirit about this matter. Remember…we don’t keep these “laws” for salvation, we keep them because we are in a Covenant relationship with Yehovah, and we want to keep them. He made us and He knows what our bodies need to operate properly. When you buy a new car, you read the instruction manual to learn the proper way to care for it and the proper fuel to put into it. It’s the same with our bodies. Seek the Holy Spirit (and read my Brit Chadashah commentary below) concerning what Yehovah is saying to you about a Biblically Kosher diet.
The Haftarah Reading (II Samuel 6:1-19)
In the Haftarah reading, we see a story very similar to Nadav & Avihu’s disobedience to God’s instructions. King David had ordered the Ark of the Covenant to be transported to Jerusalem; but the execution of that order was completely contrary to God’s instructions. The Ark was to be covered with the veil of the Tabernacle and carried on the shoulders of the Sons of Kohath. We see those instructions were not followed and we also see the consequences of that disobedience. We read from II Samuel 6:1-7:
“Again David gathered all the choice men of Israel, thirty thousand. And David arose and went with all the people who were with him from Ba’al Y’hudah to bring up from there the ark of God, whose name is called by the Name the Lord of Hosts, who dwells between the cherubim. So they set the ark of God on a new cart, and brought it out of the house of Avinadav, which was on the hill; and Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Avinadav, drove the new cart. And they brought it out of the house of Avinadav, which was on the hill, accompanying the ark of God; and Ahio went before the ark. Then David and all the house of Israel played music before the Lord on all kinds of instruments of fir wood, on harps, on stringed instruments, on tambourines, on sistrums, and on cymbals. And when they came to Nachon’s threshing floor, Uzzah put out his hand to the Ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled. Then the anger of the Lord was aroused against Uzzah, and God struck him there for his error; and he died there by the Ark of God.”
The Brit Chadashah Reading
The Brit Chadashah reading is from the Book of Acts – and specifically, the acts of Peter. In chapter 10, God was working on the righteous Gentile Cornelius. In a vision, He told Cornelius to send messengers to bring Peter to his home. But before the messengers arrived, Peter also had a vision; we read of his vision from Acts 10: 9-16:
The next day, as they went on their journey and drew near the city, Peter went up on the housetop to pray, about the sixth hour. Then he became very hungry and wanted to eat; but while they made ready, he fell into a trance and saw heaven opened and an object like a great sheet bound at the four corners, descending to him and let down to the earth. In it were all kinds of four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, creeping things, and birds of the air. And a voice came to him, “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” But Peter said, “Not so, Lord! For I have never eaten anything common or unclean.” And a voice spoke to him again the second time, “What God has cleansed you must not call common.” This was done three times. And the object was taken up into heaven again.
Peter followed the messengers back to Cornelius’ home, and we pick up the text in verse 24:
“And the following day they entered Caesarea. Now Cornelius was waiting for them, and had called together his relatives and close friends. As Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshiped him. But Peter lifted him up, saying, “Stand up; I myself am also a man.” And as he talked with him, he went in and found many who had come together. Then he said to them, “You know how unlawful it is for a Jewish man to keep company with or go to one of another nation. But God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean.”
Peter never even considered that Yehovah was giving him permission to eat things that He had forbidden him to eat his entire life. Instead, Yehovah’s message to Peter – and to us – did not give permission to eat unclean animals…it was all about taking the Gospel message to all people – those considered clean as well as those considered unclean. God is the same yesterday, today and forever; and He has not changed His Covenant Torah instructions to us.