Beth Elohim Messianic Synagogue
Parashah #35: Naso (Take) B’midbar (Numbers) 4:21-7:89
Haftarah: Shof’tim (Judges) 13:2-25
B’rit Chadashah: Yochanan (John) 7:53-8:11: Acts 21;17-32
There are several subjects discussed in this week’s parashah: a continuation of the census of the clans and families and counting all males 20 years old and older who are subject to military service, tzara’at and the confession of sin with a requirement for providing restitution; the suspicion of infidelity and jealousy of a husband and the protocol for the accused wife, the nazarite vow, and consecration of the tabernacle. Today we are going to focus on the purification process from a husband’s suspicion of adultery.
There was no tangible offering connected with this purification process. The rites described in Numbers 5:11-31consisted of two parts. In the first part of the process, the woman professed her innocence with a wave offering, commending all her ways to Adonai. In the second part of the process, she subjected herself to abiding by the consequences of her profession and appeal to G-d. This process was symbolic. The meat offering which she brought symbolized the fruit of her life of her life. But because her life was now open to suspicion, her offering was not the usual wheat but of barley flour, which was the poorest offering, while, for the same reason, oil and frankincense was not included. This was a grain offering for her husband’s jealousy, for remembering, for recalling guilt to mind (Num. 5:15-16). Before this offering was waved with part of it burned on the altar, the priest had to warn the accused woman of the horrific consequences for a false testimony before G-d, and exhibit what the priest said in a symbolical act. The priest wrote the words on a rolled- up scroll. He then took water out of the laver used by the priests to symbolically cleanse themselves of their impurities, added dust from the sanctuary, washed in this mixture the written curses, which were denounced upon this specific sin of which the woman was essentially accused of committing. After repeating “Amen,” the woman acknowledged that she understood everything that was taking place. She then made a solemn appeal to G-d and was then required to do two things which were symbolic but with real consequences. First, as the priest performed the meat wave offering, she presented her life to the heart-searching G-d, then prepared for the consequences of her appeal, she drank the bitter mixture of the threatened curses assured that it could do no harm if she were innocent. However, if she were guilty, His judgment would overtake her at some point in a manner that would correspond to the sin for which she was guilty. Numbers 5:21 makes the sentence clear. After drinking the bitter water, her abdomen would swell, her private parts would shrivel, and she would become the object of cursing among her people (Num. 5:27). However, if she were innocent, she would be blessed with children.
It seems unfair that a woman had to go through this process even if she were innocent and her husband was jealous. The logical question would be, “why doesn’t a man have to go through this process if his wife was jealous whether or not her husband was unfaithful? Why is there so much emphasis placed on this specific situation in the midst of the census of the tribes, tzara’at in the camp, the nazarite vow, and the dedication of the tabernacle?
Looking a little deeper and “between the lines” so to speak, we find additional information concerning the husband’s jealousy.
The Mishna which is the first written collection of Jewish oral traditions known as the Oral Torah is a code of Jewish law that is not always in line with G-d’s Torah. It was collected and written down about 200 C.E. although it was transmitted orally for centuries. This is important when we consider the conditions for which a woman could be brought before the priest for her husband’s jealousy.
According to the Mishna which has a tractate devoted to this issue (Sotah), a wife could not be tried for supposed or real infidelity unless her husband had previously warned her against having intercourse with someone he suspected. This warning had to be said in front of two witnesses. Furthermore, two witnesses were required to testify that she had been unfaithful. The Rabbis insist that it only applied to intercourse out of public view, and that the husband’s charge to his wife before witnesses should be preceded by private and loving admonition. If the woman committed the sin anyway, there was a process not written in G-d’s Torah that include having her husband take her to the Sanhedrim of his own location at which time two scholars would be dispatched to go to Jerusalem with the couple before the Great Sanhedrim. Efforts were made to get the wife to make a confession. If she did, she only lost what her husband had settled to her in marriage, but she retained her own portion. If she continued to maintain her innocence, she was brought through the eastern gate of the Temple to the Gate of Nicanor where the priest tore off her dress to her chest and disheveled her hair. She was covered in black if she was wearing a white dress, and any jewelry was removed. A rope was placed around her neck, and she was exposed to everyone except her parents. This protocol was done to symbolize the biblical warning in Isaiah 65:7: “Therefore I will measure their former work into their bosom;” for in what had been her pride and her temptation she was now exposed to shame.
Back to the point of how this scenario applies to us, we need to expound on Isaiah 65:7, before and after the preceding verse. I am going to quote directly because this scripture describes what is taking place in our world today. Many ask, “why are such bad things happening to us; can’t we all just love each other?” Scripture speaks for itself:
Isaiah 65:1-7: “I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me; I was found by those who did not seek me. To a nation that did not call on my name, I said, ‘ Here am I, here am I.’ All day long I have held out my hands to an obstinate people, who walk in ways not good, pursuing their own imaginations- a people who continually provoke me to my very face, offering sacrifices in gardens and burning incense on altars of brick; who sit among the graves and spend their nights keeping secret vigil; who eat the flesh of pigs, and whose pots hold broth of impure meat; who say,’ Keep away ; don’t come near me, for I am too sacred for you!’ Such people are smoke in my nostrils, a fire that keeps burning all day. “See, it stands written before me: I will not keep silent but will pay back in full; I will pay it back into their laps- both your sins and the sins of your ancestors,” says the L-rd. “Because they burned sacrifices on the mountains and defied me on the hills, I will measure into their laps the full payment for their former deeds.”
So we can now “connect the dots” between the narrative of the jealous husband and the women who were unfaithful. Furthermore, our scriptural comparison extends to the women who were innocent among those who were unfaithful. In Isaiah 65:8-10: “This is what the L-rd says: “As when juice is found in a cluster of grapes and people say, ‘don’t destroy it, there is still a blessing in it,’ so will I do in behalf of my servants; I will not destroy them all. I will bring forth descendants from Jacob, and from Judah those who will possess my mountains; my chosen people will inherit them, and there will my servants live. Sharon will become a pasture for flocks. Achor and Sharon, are two of the most fertile parts of Judea, noted for their rich pastureland.
The comparison of the narrative of a jealous husband, who rightfully or not accuses his wife of infidelity, and Isaiah chapter 65 provides a perfect example of how easily we may miss so much of G-d’s truths, instructions, and treasures if we superficially read G-d’s Torah and fail to explore the surrounding “terrain” for the “mother lode.” Just as some of the richest gold deposits are located in the most challenging places, some of which man has never accessed and have died trying to reach, a true disciple of G-d must never stop praying, studying, asking, seeking, and knocking(Matt. 7:7-8) in our quest to “Be diligent to present yourself approved to G-d, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. (2 Tim. 2:15).
Haftarah: Shof’tim (Judges) 13:2-25
This chapter describes G-d’s rescue of the people of Israel after a 40-year rule under the Philistines. Of course, this was not a straight-forward rescue. G-d works in mysterious ways. Man could never have predicted the use of Shimshon (Samson) in the way he was blessed and used by G-d, allowed to fall from grace with Delilah, and then redeemed through his self-nullification and repentance with his final mitzvoth being the destruction of more Philistines than he’d killed in his life. One lesson of many in this passage is that we must learn to trust G-d for our every need. Situations that may seem hopeless in our lives are in reality situations orchestrated or allowed by G-d to demonstrate His power and be glorified as the One True G-d. This is the whole point of living. We recite the Akdamus during Shavu’ot that contains several verses addressing this very point. Ezekiel 39:7 speaks against Magog in the context of the Gog/Magog war waged against Israel that will also result in the nations’ acknowledgement that G-d is Adonai; the Holy One of Israel. We read: “I will also send fire against Magog and against those living securely in the coastlands; then they will know that I am Adonai. I will make my holy name known among my people Israel; I will not allow my holy name to be profaned any longer. Then the Goyim will know that I am Adonai, the Holy One of Israel. Yes, this is coming, and it will be done,’ says Adonai Elohim; ‘this is the day about which I have spoken.’”
B’rit Chadashah: Yochanan (John) 7:53-8:11
This passage takes us back to the narrative in our parashah whereby a husband becomes jealous, either rightfully or not, accusing her of becoming impure by lying with another man. But before we address this, we must understand that the Torah teachers and the Pharisees were trying to trap Yahshua. Under Roman rule it was illegal for Jewish courts to enforce a death sentence, but that did not always succeed in preventing them (Acts 7:58-9). Furthermore the Torah states in Lev. 20:10, “If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife, that is, with the wife of a fellow countryman, both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death.” However there is a difference in what happened in this account and that of our parashah. In John 8:3 the woman was caught in the act of lying with a man. Just what happened to the man we are not told. Regardless, in this week’s parashah, G-d established the test of purity for a woman whose husband was suspicious of her but had no proof that she was unfaithful. Num. 5:13 states “if another man goes to bed with her without her husband’s knowledge, so that she becomes impure secretly, and there is no witness against her, and she was not caught in the act…;” In John, the accusers make the woman stand in the middle of the group (John 8:3). In Num. 5:15 the woman was to be taken to the Cohen with an offering on her behalf by her husband. The woman was then taken to stand alone before Adonai in view of any onlookers with the exception of her parents.
In John 8:3, the Torah teachers and Pharisees unknowingly placed the woman before YHVH/Yahshua, yet there was no husband present for any “eye witnesses” to condemn her of adultery. With no husband to condemn her as was the situation in our parashah, there was no reason to judge her (John 8:10-11). In verse 5 Moshe is cited as is the Torah for the prescribed punishment. Yahshua’s response showed four things: He was not against the Torah, He was merciful toward the woman, He opposed her sin (Ex. 20:14), and He could silence hecklers and put them to shame (compare Mt. 22:46).
YHVH/Yahshua knows our motives before we ever act, and we will be held accountable for every deed (Rev. 20:12). We must examine ourselves carefully and often (Psalm 139:23) striving for the goal of being declared a “good and faithful servant.”
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Tamah Davis-Hart