Tzav — "Command!" — The Chain of Transmission From Sinai to Us

Not "Speak" — "Command"

The normal communication of God with Moses was "speak" or "call" — like the first Torah portion of Leviticus, called "Vayikra" = "And He Called." But this portion is different. Its name is Tzav — "Command!" The word for command in the Hebrew Bible is not a rare word. It appears 202 times. It is a very direct and emphatic word that leaves no doubt of what God expects from people whom He commands to take action. Now God commands Moses, and through Moses commands Aaron his brother. Aaron commands his sons, and they pass on the instruction to the people. This is the chain of command that starts with God and reaches all the way to us in the 21st century, thousands of years later, for our instruction and guidance.

The Mishnah — the collection of Rabbinical teachings that begins with the tractate called "Avot" — "The Fathers" — describes this chain with these words:

People ask how the Bible was written and transmitted to us. This text from Leviticus 6:8 gives us a window into the process. Moses received the Torah from God on top of Mount Sinai, and passed it on to Joshua, and Joshua to the elders, and it was transmitted from one generation to the next.

The Bible Is a Jewish Book — Written in a Jewish Context

The transmission of the Bible — both what is called the "Old Testament" and what is called the "New Testament" — was by far written by Jews, in a Jewish context and settings, mostly in the land of Israel. If it was not written in the land of Israel, like the book of Daniel, the book of Esther, and Ezekiel, the writers were looking with passion at the land of Israel as God-given, and the homeland of the Jewish nation, both in the present and definitely for the future. This charge that God gave to the Jewish people as a nation is generally speaking totally ignored by the vast majority of Christians, who have the impression that the Bible is their heritage and a Christian book.

Scribes, Seals, and the Faithfulness of Transmission

We are living in a very skeptical world — a world that doubts everything and especially doubts the veracity of the Word of God. But the interesting thing happening in the land of Israel is that several times per year, there is another archaeological find that substantiates the faithfulness of the transmission of God's revelation. Recently, archaeologists officially announced the discovery of a 3,100-year-old inscription from the site of Khirbet al-Ra'i — the biblical city of Ziklag — that may be evidence of Gideon the Judge. This small potsherd with ancient Hebrew text bearing the name of Gideon is an amazing find that substantiates the faithfulness of the biblical narrative.

The Word of God was transmitted for thousands of years before the printing press and before computers. Faithful men sat to copy, by hand, every word and every jot and tittle. It takes a scribe a year to write the five Books of Moses by hand — on goat skins with a handmade feather pen and special ink, also made by hand. Every time the scribe has to write the holy name of God — the four letters — the scribe has to go to the mikva (immersion pool) and purify himself, then return to his place and write those four letters.

We know the transmission is faithful because we have the whole book of Isaiah from the 2nd century B.C.E. from Qumran. When you compare the Qumran Isaiah text with later manuscripts, the faithfulness of the scribes that copied the 66-chapter long Isaiah text is a confirmation of faithful transmission from the 2nd Century B.C.E. all the way to our own days. The word of God is trustworthy and proven a thousand times over — by science, archaeology, prophecy, and above all by the history and fulfillment of God's promises throughout the history of Israel.

We Are Just a Link — But the Chain Holds

Thinking about this historical chain of transmission from God to man, from man to man, from man to nation, from nation to the whole world is a living chain that reminds me of Aretha Franklin's song — "Chain of Fools":

We, the disciples of Yeshua the Messiah, are still the only tool that the Creator has devised to transmit and preserve and restore the original question that God asked Adam and Eve — Ayecka! = Where are you? This is one of the essential questions that all of humanity must ask itself: where are you in relationship to the Creator, and in relationship to the Creation, and in relationship to your people and nation and this blue ball called Earth?

Please notice that the whole Passover feast is for your children and the hard work of cleaning and preparing and the ceremony is all for your children — for the next generation, for the chain to keep going, for the transmission of God's love and revelation:

God's Word has reached us through countless faithful hands. May it not stop with ours.