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Subject: Parashat: Tetzaveh / Divination Scriptures
Date: Thu, 4 Mar 1999 16:39:06 -0800
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From: Yeshivat Har Etzion's Israel Koschitzky Virtual Beit Midrash
To: heb_roots_chr@geocities.com
Subject:: Parashat Tetzaveh
YESHIVAT HAR ETZION
ISRAEL KOSCHITZKY VIRTUAL BEIT MIDRASH (VBM)
*********************************************************
INTRODUCTION TO PARASHAT HASHAVUA
by Rav Jonathan Mishkin
PARASHAT TETZAVEH
Divine Magic
Parashat Tetzaveh describes the fashioning of the
Kohen Gadol's breastplate - a well-known image. Twelve
precious stones, each representing one of Israel's
tribes, were arranged in four rows of three stones each.
On the stones themselves were engraved the names of the
tribes in the order of the birth of the sons of Jacob.
What is less known is that the breastplate was actually
folded over to create a pocket and that inside the
Choshen HaMishpat were placed the URIM and the TUMMIM.
The Torah commands the following: "Inside the breastpiece
of judgment you shall place the Urim and Tummim, so that
they are over Aaron's heart when he comes before the
Lord. Thus Aaron shall carry the instrument of decision
for the Israelites over his heart before the Lord at all
times" (Exodus 28:30).
The nature and function of the Urim and Tummim is
the subject of this week's essay. Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo
ben Yitzchak, 11th century) explains what the Torah means
by Urim and Tummim: This was the writing of the Divine
Name which he (Moses) placed inside the folds of the
breastplate by means of which he shed light ("Or" -
related to the word Urim) upon his words and made perfect
("Tamam" - related to the word Tummim) his words. Rashi
is referring to the traditional function of the
breastplate which was to serve as a sort of oracle. With
the name of God within the pouch serving as a type of
power source, letters comprising the tribes' names lit up
in answer to questions posed by the Kohen. The Ramban
(Rabbi Moses ben Nachman, 13th century) adds that
deciphering the message required a certain level of
divine inspiration which was provided by the Tummim.
Since the highlighted letters could be arranged to spell
out any number of sentences, the Kohen wearing the
breastplate would need a bit of assistance to arrange the
letters into their coherent and correct meaning. Details
for the divination procedure are given in the Talmud,
Yoma73a-b.
Our Rabbis taught: How were the Urim and Tummim
inquired of? The inquirer had his face directed to
him who was consulted, and the latter directed
himself to the Divine Presence. The inquirer said
[for example] "Shall I pursue after this troop?" (I
Samuel 30:8) He who was consulted answered: "Thus
saith the Lord: Go up and succeed!" Rabbi Judah
said: He need not say, "Thus saith the Lord' but only
'Go up and succeed.'" One does not inquire in a loud
voice ... One should not put two questions at the
same time; if one has done so, only one question is
answered... How was it effected? Rabbi Yochanan
said: The letters stood forth. Reish Lakish said:
They joined each other.
The Gemara alludes to David's usage of the
breastplate to form his strategies in his flight from
Saul and during his various campaigns. In I Samuel
chapter 23, for example, David must decide whether he can
trust the townsfolk of Ke'ila to protect him from Saul or
not.
When David learned that Saul was planning to harm
him, he told the priest Abiathar to bring the ephod
(the apron to which the breastplate was tied)
forward. And David said "O Lord, God of Israel, Your
servant has heard that Saul intends to come to Ke'ila
and destroy the town because of me. Will the
citizens of Ke'ila deliver me into his hands? Will
Saul come down, as Your servant has heard? O Lord,
God of Israel, tell Your servant!" And the Lord said
"He will" (verses 9-12).
What we have been discussing so far seems rather to
describe what is known as a Ouija board. Here, the
popular '20's apparatus is described in Laurance Sparks'
book "Self-Hypnosis:" "This device consisted of a
flatiron-shaped object that would slide over a card on
which the letters of the alphabet were imprinted. The
fingers of the operator were supposed to be placed
lightly upon the surface of the movable piece in such a
manner as to cause it to act as a pointer. A question
would be thought of, whereupon the piece would point out,
one by one, the letters forming a message or an answer to
the question."
It would seem forbidden for a Jew to act on advice
given by a Ouija board since divination is a practice
expressly outlawed by the Torah. Leviticus 19:26 states:
"You shall not eat anything with its blood. You shall
not practice divination or soothsaying." Maimonides
(Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon 12th century) in Hilkhot Avodat
Kokhavim 11:4 explains what the prohibition entails: What
is divination? For example, those people who say 'Since
my bread fell out of my mouth, or I dropped my stick, I
shall not go to my planned destination because I will be
unsuccessful today.' Or those who say, 'Since a fox
passed me on the right I shall stay indoors for if I go
out, I will be taken by a cheat.' Still others make
signs for themselves saying 'If such and such happens, I
will do one thing, and if it doesn't happen, I will not
do it.'" Why should such statements be forbidden? Why
does the Torah forbid belief in portents? Sefer
HaChinukh, mitzva #249, explains simply that all of this
is pure nonsense. It is not befitting a holy people
chosen by God to dabble in drivel and lies. Another
explanation for this prohibition might be that the Torah
is concerned that its adherents will believe that there
are forces in the world other than God which determine
events. Fearing that the presence of a black cat will
negatively affect one's day is not only goofy but
suggests that a cat has the power to determine your fate.
If this understanding is a correct explanation of
the problem of omen interpretation, then it is obvious
that the Torah draws a definite distinction between the
power of the Urim and Tummim and the false claims of
soothsaying. When David employs the breastplate he makes
it quite clear that he is turning to God for assistance.
He recognizes that the stones have no power on their own
to reveal or control the future. He is directing his
questions to God.
But what about the Ouija board? If we declare that
it too is a conduit for God's message, does that make
belief in its power acceptable? One of the Bible's most
dramatic tales tells of seeking a divine message in a
similar fashion. I refer to the opening chapter of the
Book of Jonah and the determination that Jonah is
responsible for the storm that threatens the sailors'
lives.
But the Lord cast a mighty wind upon the sea, and
such a tempest came upon the sea that the ship was in
danger of breaking up. In their fright, the sailors
cried out, each to his own god; and they flung the
ship's cargo overboard to make it lighter for them.
Jonah, meanwhile, had gone down into the hold of the
vessel, where he lay down and fell asleep. The
captain went over to him and cried out, 'How can you
be sleeping so soundly! Up, call upon your god!
Perhaps the god will be kind to us and we will not
perish." The men said to one another, "Let us cast
lots and find out on whose account this misfortune
has come upon us." They cast lots and the lot fell
upon Jonah (Jonah 1:4-7).
The rest of the chapter is well-known - Jonah admits
to being the cause of the storm and the men hesitatingly
heave him into the water to pacify the sea.
Now, it is unclear exactly what method the seafarers
used to settle on Jonah - straws, dice or names in a hat,
but it's unlikely that they had a copy of the Urim and
Tummim with them. And yet, in addition to the mariners'
clear belief that casting lots would reveal the truth,
the text itself allows us to think that this technique
was a meaningful way of discovering the will of God. Are
we to learn from this that anything we determine to be a
sign, if attributed to God, speaks for Him? Can I flip a
coin and state that 'heads' means that God is telling me
to buy a Coke and 'tails' means God wants me to buy
Pepsi? I think that the obvious answer to these
questions is 'no.'
There are several reasons why the Jonah story does
not support indiscriminate divine communication.
Firstly, it is significant that the sailors donot act on
the lots alone. They ask Jonah to provide some
explanation for their predicament, which really means
they are asking whether the lottery speaks the truth.
Jonah confesses to running from the Lord, showing that
despite the lots, an additional admission of guilt was
required to condemn him. Secondly, it is Jonah himself
who suggests a course of action to save the ship. It is
not the lots which stated he must be cast overboard but
Jonah himself. How did Jonah know that that would end
the threat to the ship? The text does not say. But
remember that Jonah was a prophet to whom God spoke
directly and so we might surmise that he possessed levels
of understanding or knowledge which are unknown to us.
What I am suggesting is that this episode cannot be seen
as an ordinary case of people using some random method
for coming to a decision. It is likely that this is an
exceptional tale of divine intervention and communication
which cannot serve as a model for deciding when God is
relaying a message to mankind.
And so, I must return to my initial claim that if
God communicates to man via physical media, He does so
using established techniques. The Urim and Tummim -
Choshen Mishpat combination, however, is not the only
method outlined in the Torah for reading the will of God
within tangible objects. There are two other systems
described which use a form of divination to discover
hidden knowledge, practices which share a remarkable
feature with the Urim and Tummim.
The first one is the case of the suspected
adulteress wife - Sota, discussed in Numbers chapter 5.
If a husband suspects his wife of adultery, he brings her
to the priest who stands her before the Lord. "The
priest shall then take sacral water in an earthen vessel
and, taking some of the earth that is on the floor of the
Tabernacle, the priest shall put it into the water ...
The priest shall adjure the woman, saying to her 'If no
man has lain with you, if you have not gone astray in
defilement while married to your husband, be immune to
harm from this water of bitterness that induces the
spell. But if you have gone astray while married to your
husband and have defiled yourself, if a man other than
your husband has had carnal relations with you'" - here
the priest shall administer the curse of adjuration to
the woman, as the priest goes on to say to the woman -
"'May the Lord make you a curse and an imprecation among
your people, as the Lord causes your thigh to sag and
your belly to distend, may this water that induces the
spell enter your body, causing the belly to distend and
the thigh to sag.' And the woman shall say 'Amen, amen.'
The priest shall put these curses down in writing and rub
it off into the water of bitterness. He is to make the
woman drink the water of bitterness that induces the
spell, so that the spell inducing water may enter into
her to bring on bitterness." (verses 17, 19-24)
The Torah is prescribing here something that looks a
lot like magic. If the woman has indeed been unfaithful
to her husband, the magic potion will cause her belly to
swell. If the suspicions are false, she will emerge
unchanged from the ordeal. Commenting on this
phenomenon, Ramban writes that this is the sole instance
where the Torah promises a miracle will reveal the truth.
There is no test to prove, for example, whether an
accused criminal has indeed killed somebody. Here,
however, the Torah wishes to preserve the sanctity of the
nation and to avoid problems of paternity. The
remarkable feature of this procedure is that it involves
writing the name of God on a parchment, as it appears
within the paragraph quoted above, and dissolving the
entire passage in the bitter waters. The elixir's power
demands an essential ingredient - as with the Urim and
Tummim, it is the presence of God's name which effects
the miracle.
We move now to Leviticus 16 where the Torah
describes the Yom Kippur service. Two he-goats are
selected to participate in the atonement procedures. One
of these goats will be sacrificed as a sin-offering and
the other is banished to the wilderness. "Aaron shall
lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat and
confess over it all the iniquities and transgressions of
the Israelites, whatever their sins, putting them on the
head of the goat; and it shall be sent off to the
wilderness through a designated man. Thus the goat shall
carry on it all their iniquities to an inaccessible
region; and the goat shall be set free in the wilderness"
(verses 21-22).
In actuality both goats were killed; the one taken
to Azazel - the wilderness - was pushed off a cliff.
This goat symbolically takes the place of all sinners who
deserve to die for their sins. What is of concern to us
in this story is the method of choosing which goat serves
as the sacrifice and which as the scape-goat. While it
wouldn't seem to make much of a difference which goat
received which fate there was actually a procedure to
follow which made this not a human decision but a divine
one.
A special wooden box called a Kalpi was prepared and
inside were placed two wooden lots. The Kohen Gadol
shook the box and brought up the two lots - one in each
hand. On one was inscribed 'For the Lord' and on the
other 'For Azazel.' The lot that was brought in the
right hand determined the fate of the goat standing on
his right, and the lot held in the left hand determined
the fate of the goat standing on his left (see Mishna
Yoma 4:1). The significance of this lottery should be
obvious. Both goats seem to symbolize the nation: one
goat is involved in a holy act of sacrifice and is taken
up to God; the other has the nation's sins heaped upon
him and sent out to die a nasty death in the desert. It
is entirely appropriate that God Himself should decide
which goat is accepted and which is rejected, for it is
only God Who decides which people face forgiveness and
which punishment. We know that God is involved in
deciding the goats' fates because once again the name of
God is used to reveal the undetermined.
The three cases we have examined thus share the same
message: the Torah does allow practices that seem like
divination - consulting lit stones, drinking magic
potions, a High Priest ceremoniously asking the fates to
pick a goat to be damned. And yet the true nature behind
each of these cases is contained in the usage of the
divine name. God does reveal secrets to man using common
objects and in the presence of a priest, but it is
crucial that the people understand that only God can
communicate in such a fashion and not some other
imaginary power.
Copyright (c) 1998 Yeshivat Har Etzion.
All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
>From Linda E Semler
To: heb_roots_chr@geocities.com
Subject: Biblical Divination Scriptures
(Lev 20:6 NIV) ""'I will set my face against the person who turns to
mediums and spiritists to prostitute himself by following them, and I
will cut him off from his people."
(Lev 20:27 NIV) ""'A man or woman who is a medium or spiritist among
you must be put to death. You are to stone them; their blood will be
on their own heads.'""
(1 Sam 28:3 NIV) "Now Samuel was dead, and all Israel had mourned for
him and buried him in his own town of Ramah. Saul had expelled the
mediums and spiritists from the land."
(1 Sam 28:11 NIV) "Then the woman asked, "Whom shall I bring up for
you?" "Bring up Samuel," he said."
(2 Ki 21:6 NIV) "He sacrificed his own son in the fire, practiced
sorcery and divination, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did
much evil in the eyes of the LORD, provoking him to anger."
(1 Chr 10:13 NIV) "Saul died because he was unfaithful to the LORD;
he did not keep the word of the LORD and even consulted a medium for
guidance,"
(Isa 8:19 NIV) "When men tell you to consult mediums and spiritists,
who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why
consult the dead on behalf of the living?"
(Deu 18:9 NIV) "When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving
you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations
there."
(Deu 18:10 NIV) "Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son
or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery,
interprets omens, engages in witchcraft,"
(Deu 18:11 NIV) "or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or
who consults the dead."
(Micah 5:12 NIV) "I will destroy your witchcraft and you will no
longer cast spells."
(Micah 5:13 NIV) "I will destroy your carved images and your sacred
stones from among you; you will no longer bow down to the work of your
hands."
(Micah 5:14 NIV) "I will uproot from among you your Asherah poles and
demolish your cities."
(Micah 5:15 NIV) "I will take vengeance in anger and wrath upon the
nations that have not obeyed me.""
(Exo 22:18 NIV) ""Do not allow a sorceress to live."
(Isa 47:12 NIV) ""Keep on, then, with your magic spells and with your
many sorceries, which you have labored at since childhood. Perhaps you
will succeed, perhaps you will cause terror."
(Isa 47:13 NIV) "All the counsel you have received has only worn you
out! Let your astrologers come forward, those stargazers who make
predictions month by month, let them save you from what is coming upon
you."
(Isa 47:14 NIV) "Surely they are like stubble; the fire will burn
them up. They cannot even save themselves from the power of the flame.
Here are no coals to warm anyone; here is no fire to sit by."
(Isa 47:15 NIV) "That is all they can do for you-- these you have
labored with and trafficked with since childhood. Each of them goes on
in his error; there is not one that can save you."
(Lev 19:26 NIV) ""'Do not eat any meat with the blood still in it.
"'Do not practice divination or sorcery."
(Lev 19:31 NIV) ""'Do not turn to mediums or seek out spiritists, for
you will be defiled by them. I am the LORD your God."
(Jer 27:9 NIV) "So do not listen to your prophets, your diviners,
your interpreters of dreams, your mediums or your sorcerers who tell
you, 'You will not serve the king of Babylon.'"
(Jer 27:10 NIV) "They prophesy lies to you that will only serve to
remove you far from your lands; I will banish you and you will
perish."
(Mal 3:5 NIV) ""So I will come near to you for judgment. I will be
quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against
those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and
the fatherless, and deprive aliens of justice, but do not fear me,"
says the LORD Almighty."
(Acts 13:6 NIV) "They traveled through the whole island until they
came to Paphos. There they met a Jewish sorcerer and false prophet
named Bar- Jesus,"
(Acts 13:7 NIV) "who was an attendant of the proconsul, Sergius
Paulus. The proconsul, an intelligent man, sent for Barnabas and Saul
because he wanted to hear the word of God."
(Acts 13:8 NIV) "But Elymas the sorcerer (for that is what his name
means) opposed them and tried to turn the proconsul from the faith."
(Acts 13:9 NIV) "Then Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the
Holy Spirit, looked straight at Elymas and said,"
(Acts 13:10 NIV) ""You are a child of the devil and an enemy of
everything that is right! You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery. Will
you never stop perverting the right ways of the Lord?"
(Acts 13:11 NIV) "Now the hand of the Lord is against you. You are
going to be blind, and for a time you will be unable to see the light
of the sun." Immediately mist and darkness came over him, and he
groped about, seeking someone to lead him by the hand."
(Acts 13:12 NIV) "When the proconsul saw what had happened, he
believed, for he was amazed at the teaching about the Lord."
(Acts 16:16 NIV) "Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we
were met by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the
future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by
fortune-telling."
(Acts 16:17 NIV) "This girl followed Paul and the rest of us,
shouting, "These men are servants of the Most High God, who are
telling you the way to be saved.""
(Acts 16:18 NIV) "She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became
so troubled that he turned around and said to the spirit, "In the name
of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!" At that moment the
spirit left her."
(Acts 16:19 NIV) "When the owners of the slave girl realized that
their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and
dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities."
(Acts 19:18 NIV) "Many of those who believed now came and openly
confessed their evil deeds."
(Acts 19:19 NIV) "A number who had practiced sorcery brought their
scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the
value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas."
(Rev 21:8 NIV) "But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the
murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the
idolaters and all liars--their place will be in the fiery lake of
burning sulfur. This is the second death.""
**********************************************************************
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