Tzav – Torah with Joseph

Read the transcript below, or watch a video of the teaching by Joseph Shulam.

Shalom, my name is Joseph Shulam, and together with Brad TV, we are doing these portions of the week.

And today we are reading the second portion from the book of Leviticus, which in Hebrew is called “Tzav,” which means command. God tells Moses, command the children of Aaron and his sons. This is the law of the burnt offering. We’re starting a series of commands. There are several different types of offerings, several different types of sacrifices. Some are on the altar, some are not on the altar, but the most important one and the most prevalent one and the most popular one was the burnt offering.

And there are different kinds of burnt offerings as well. The one that we are starting with here in 6:2 of the book of Leviticus is the perpetual burnt offering, that was kindled on the altar, on the griddle, on the heat of the altar every night. And fire went burning all night long on the altar. And this was a kind of burnt offering that was not for the individual. It was for the whole nation, for the whole camp of Israel that was in the wilderness at that time. And then in Jerusalem, it was for the whole nation of Israel.

The Clothing of the Priests

A special offering, a national offering. So the priests are commanded to do that every night, but what’s interesting to me is their clothing. As you notice, I’m here in Israel, in Jerusalem, and I’m wearing a jacket and a shirt and a tie, and Israel is a very informal country. And the United States is also an informal country, and Brazil is also an informal country. England is not, it’s formal. France is formal. Italy is formal. But when the priests do this work and prepare the burnt offering, they put on linen clothes, very simple, white linen clothes. That’s all the clothes that the priest puts on, with a kind of pants and a tunic of linen. And he prepares the ashes and the wood and all the things that he has to deal with when he cleans the altar, he takes off these linen clothes and he puts on other clothes to remove the ashes outside the camp.

And the fire of the altar never stops. This is something that is quite interesting to me. We are going to see the attitude of the prophets toward the Temple and toward the Tabernacle. And we are going to try to understand more in depth of what is God’s will, and why did God commands all of these intricate commands? 13 chapters dealing in the book of Leviticus with the work of the Levites and the priests on the altars and the sacrificial orders of the worship of God in the Tabernacle and then later on in the Temple, but I’m returning to the clothes. He finished one job. He prepared the altar. He changed clothes, he put on other clothes. That’s actually what verse four chapter six is. He took off his clothes and he put on other clothes.

And he took out the ashes from the altar, cleaned up the altar, and then lit a new fire on the altar, a fire on the altar that should not ever be totally extinguished. In the morning he brings the wood and he arranges the pile of the wood and he offers the fat of the sacrifice. And then in verse seven of chapter six, we have another kind of offering, the “mincha,” which is the freewill offering, the freewill offering, or the noon offering on the altar. And together with that offering, he puts some meal, and spices on it, the “levona,” frankincense.

And there is a good smell coming out of the altar, in verse eight of chapter six, and whatever is left over, Aaron and his sons, they have the crackers, the matzo, the holy bread. That was in the courtyard of the Temple. And it should not be leavened, it should be unleavened bread. It’s a holy of holies. This bread is considered holy. And every male of the household of Aaron, of the priests, could eat from that bread.

The Big Picture Is Important

All the intricate issues of the sacrifices, and the sacrifice of Aaron and his sons that they offered to the Lord on the day that they were anointed as priests, all these details are here. I’m usually not a person of details. And so I’m going to continue not being a person of details. If you wanna read it, read it for yourself. But the big picture is very important to me. The big picture is very important to me.

The Tabernacle, a tent, temporary dwelling, made with the gold and the silver and the skins and the cloth and the wood, that people contributed. Once it was finished and sanctified and anointed, the sacrifice and all of the tools of the altar, all the tools of the Tabernacle, it became out of bounds. Even for Moses. Only the priest could get into it and serve the altar of most of these sacrifices, at least until the book of Deuteronomy.

The book of Deuteronomy, everything changes. Any Levite is also a priest, but not in the book of Leviticus, only the sons of Aaron are the priests, and they have different sets of clothing for every task. They have the formal clothing with the breast plate of gold, with the 12 precious stones representing the tribes. And there are 12 tribes, 12 stones, and in the book of Revelation, Jerusalem descends from heaven, and covers the city of Jerusalem, if you read Ezekiel’s description of the Temple of Ezekiel, it’s huge. It covers all of the modern, old city and part of the new city of Jerusalem today. It’s a huge temple and all of the mechanism of the priests and their jobs and the different ceremonies and the anointings and the tools that they had.

Everything is described here in the book of Leviticus. And the male priests could eat from the sacrifices, not from all the sacrifices, but from some of the sacrifices. And they could eat the meat that is offered there. And most of the people, there were sacrifices, like Thanksgiving, sacrifice of Thanksgiving, and sacrifices of certain holidays. They could share. The person who brought the sacrifice could share parts of it with the priest and parts of it he and his family could eat, just like in the story of the first chapters of the book of 1 Samuel. Hannah and her husband and his other wife come every year, year after year on the holiday and offered sacrifices, and they eat from the sacrifices that they bring. People didn’t have refrigerators. So we have to understand this, that the whole Temple thing, and the whole Tabernacle thing was the only way that they could eat meat.

Sacrifices Were the Only Way to Eat Meat

Because until the book of Deuteronomy, the people, if they wanted to eat meat, they had to take the animal to the Tabernacle, the Levites and the priest would slaughter it, clean it, prepare it, offer it, keep a part of it, burn a part of it, the skin, and some of the fat and things like that would be burned. And then it would be divided, part of it for the priests, and part of it, the people who brought the sacrifice would celebrate and eat from it. This is something that most Christians don’t realize that, that it was the only way they could eat meat.

A family, let’s say a family of eight souls, father, mother, grandmother, and grandfather, and four children. If they brought a lamb, they couldn’t finish it all in one day, even if they gave the part of the Levites, they had to eat it and enjoy it and give the rest to the Levites and some to the poor, because there was no refrigeration, no way to keep meat that was slaughtered. As long as the meat was on the hoof, the animal was alive. The animal, you know, stayed safe. But as soon as you slaughtered the animal, the meat would start rotting without refrigeration.

It wouldn’t take too long for it to start becoming bad, inedible. So they had to, whatever they slaughtered, they had to finish, they had to eat, and they had to share it with the Levites, and participate with it. Only the burnt offering, which was a sin offering, “hatat” in Hebrew. They gave it all. They didn’t partake of it at all. They gave it to the Levites and to the priest to do whatever part, they took some parts, and the detail in our reading is very big, what to do with the kidneys, what to do with the fat, what to do with the liver, what to do with other parts of the animal. All this is described here in this portion of the Levites. And the male priests would eat from the sacrifices in the holy precinct, in the Tabernacle itself, or in the courtyard of the Tabernacle, but they couldn’t take it out to go home with it, yeah.

David and the Showbread

Now then there is the issue of the show bread that was baked on the Sabbath day by the priests and put on the special table inside the Tabernacle and every Sabbath but it would be changed. And only then the priest could eat it, again in the holy precinct, which we have that very fascinating story that is mentioned also in the New Testament, of King David coming, he had 400 vagabonds that followed him and fought on his side and protected him. They were hungry. So they come to Nob, the city of Nob was on top of Mount Scopus, overlooking Jerusalem. And the Tabernacle was there in the days of David, outside of Jerusalem in Nob.

And that was after it was returned from the capture of the Philistines. Then it went to what today is called the Arab village of Abu Ghosh, Kiryat Ye’arim, the biblical name of it. And then David brings it up, the Tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant is restored in Jerusalem. And so they, in Nob, David comes there and talks to Abiathar the priest and tells him, my people are hungry. And it was a Sabbath day, fresh bread, that was put on the Lord’s table. And David essentially takes that bread, that was holy bread designed for the Lord, and feeds his people there.

Yeshua, when Jesus is walking through the valley to find the Galilee on the way to Capernaum with His disciples, and they’re hungry, and this is in the springtime, and the wheat is growing and the green wheat is delicious. They can just squeeze the grains out of the stalk of wheat, and eat it. And the Pharisees come and say, your disciples are breaking the laws of the Sabbath, they are picking grain on the Sabbath.

Yeshua says, remember David? Remember David? And most Christians don’t know what he’s talking about. He’s talking about exactly that thing that happens in the book of Samuel. Where the disciples of David, David is running away from King Saul and for Samuel. And he comes to Nob, and the priest allows him to take the bread that was still hot, baked on the Sabbath day, that was designed for the Lord. So Yeshua is answering the Pharisees, he says, if you’re hungry, then even the holy bread of the Lord is for you to satisfy your hunger. And David, the only thing that he did that was questionable, that he wasn’t condemned by God.

God never condemned David for taking the Showbread on the Sabbath day for his disciples and for lying to the priest that Saul sent him to take the sword of Goliath with him. And he took the sword of Goliath on that same day.

God Doesn’t Need Sacrifices

So all these laws of the sacrifices are here in the book of Leviticus. Chapter seven is the baking of the show bread. And sacrifice after sacrifice is repeated. Now, I mentioned in last week’s portion, Jeremiah 7, and this is interesting, considering all these laws of sacrifices and the big emphasis that is put there, I am going to go to Jeremiah 7, and read to you from chapter seven, from verse 21.

I’m going to go to King James over here, and read it from the New King James.

Interesting text. I mean, here we were in Leviticus and we were in Leviticus reading about all these chapters after chapters after chapters of the great details in which the children of Israel, were commanded by God, in the book of Leviticus, of the sacrifices, the importance of the sacrifices and all the ceremonies and how to do it, and where to do it and what to do with the kidneys and with the liver and with the skin and with the entrails and with the meat.

And then about the bread, that is the Showbread. And then we read in Jeremiah 7, that God says, I didn’t command them about sacrifices and burnt offerings. How could that be? I mean, we’re reading the text, he commanded them. He commanded Moses to command Aaron and his sons. But here is the point. Paul makes the same point. Paul makes the same point in Acts 17. He’s in Athens. He was accused of creating trouble in the marketplace. He was teaching the Greeks in Athens, the stoics that were out there in the “stoa,” in the porch, that was restored in Athens until today. And he says, God is not dwelling in temples made with human hands. And he doesn’t need anything from you.

This is the same concept from Jeremiah and from Isaiah 1, and from Isaiah 6, it is a concept that the prophets in the eighth century BC were very strong on because it’s easy to worship. It’s easy to give money to the church. It’s easy to go to the Temple and offer sacrifices. You pay for the lamb, for the sheep, $250, $300, and you bring it there and you, oh, right now, I cleaned all my sins. I repented, I cleaned all my sins. I offered my sacrifice, I paid my debt to God, hallelujah, praise God.

But the prophets are against this. The prophets have this concept that we read from Jeremiah 7:21-24. What I really wanted from you is not the burnt offering. I don’t need the grilled meat. What I really want is for you to have a relationship with me, to obey me, to hear me, to listen to me, that’s more important to me than your money, than your sacrifices, than your offerings. That relationship that I have with you is much more important to me.

God says in Jeremiah 7, obey Me, hear Me, let’s have a conversation. The same message is given in Isaiah 1, from verse 11 to the end of the chapter. And in Isaiah 6, where God says through the prophets, I desire mercy more than I desire sacrifice. And yet, in the book of Leviticus, we have these detailed chapters after chapters, most Christians don’t read them, and I suggest you read them ‘cause there’s a lot of interesting things there, not so relevant for our daily life today because I live in Jerusalem, but there is no temple in Jerusalem.

There hasn’t been the Temple in Jerusalem since the year 70. And yeah, so the things seem to us as not relevant, but the principles that we hear are very relevant to us too, because two things. One is that we need to feel that we are doing something for God. We need to feel that we’re doing something with God, in partnership with God. And if we don’t do that, our faith becomes very shaky, very doubtful because what you invest your time, your money, your talent, your gifts in, that’s where your heart is going to be.

We have this teaching, where your wallet is, that’s where your heart is. And that principle is here in the book of Leviticus in the first chapter, main thing.

Kohen Mashiyach – The Anointed Priest

There is another very important principle here in this portion of the Torah. And that is that the priest is called “kohen mashiyach.” Verse 15 of Leviticus, is called “kohen mashiyach” which means priest messiah, the anointed priest.

Messiah means anointed. And the anointed messiah is that priest who’s been anointed. How did they anoint him? We find out how, here in the book of Leviticus, the anointing is like this. Very different than what Christians anoint, Christians anoint, they take oil, olive oil, and they make a cross shape, something on the forehead of the believer. That’s not how the anointing is in the book of Leviticus, not of the priests and not of the Levites. The anointing is like this. You anointed the ear, the right ear of the priest. There is anointing with the blood of the sacrifice, and there is anointing with oil. The right ear of the priest, you anoint the right thumb of the priest, and you anoint the right toe of the priest.

Why? ‘Cause a priest, a servant of God, has to hear the Lord, has to do with his hand, the work of the Lord, and he has to walk with the Lord. That’s why he’s anointed in his ear, in his right thumb, and in his right toe of his foot. And so the “kohen mashiyach,” chapter six, verse 15, we read about the “kohen mashiyach,” the priest who is also a messiah, anointed, and anointed to do the work of the Lord.

The Guilt Offering

There is another interesting concept in this portion of the Torah. And that is what’s called a guilt offering. It’s in chapter seven, verse one. In English, in the New King James. It reads like this:

This is a very interesting offering, the trespass offering. We would call it, the English translate trespass, but it actually means the sin offering.

And that is an offering that is brought by the sinner. It’s not on the holiday, it’s not on the Sabbath. It’s not the daily normal offering. It is an offering which is offered by the sinner. Whenever somebody repents, he brings the trespass offering. And there’s a whole ceremony going around there with the fat and with the kidneys and with the other parts of the animal. And like I said, this offering is differential. It depends on your status in the community, whether you are rich or poor. And it is something that if you are rich, if you brought a poor man’s offering, it will be an abomination.

It will be an offense to God. If you are rich, you ought to bring a bull to cover your sins. Expensive, big, yeah. If you are not so rich, you could bring a medium class, a goat or a sheep. And if you are less, then you bring two birds, two turtle doves like Joseph and Mary brought, which means that they were not poor of the poorest, but they were also not rich, not even upper middle class. ‘Cause they brought to the Temple in Luke 2, two turtle doves, which is the offering of the not so rich, kinda lower middle class.

God Judges Us on the Curve

Now that’s interesting, because for the same sin, you’re allowed to bring what you can to atone for the sin. So if you’re rich and you commit sin number X, you bring a bull. If you are less rich, commit the same sin, you don’t have to bring a bull. You bring a sheep or a goat. If you are less rich, you know, lower middle class, you bring two birds for the same sin. And the atonement is the same atonement, same powerful forgiveness, same powerful deleting of your sin from the books of the Lord. God takes account who you are.

I said it last week, we have the same story in the New Testament. A Pharisee brings a thousand denari to the Temple as a gift. The widow brings two pennies and Yeshua asks, Jesus asks, who gave more? The widow gave more, even though she didn’t give more than two pennies, but that’s all she had. And God accepted and honored her more than the Pharisee that gave out of his plenty. It’s a principle that Christians need to learn. Yes, Christians need to learn and Jews need to learn too.

All of us need to learn this principle. God judges us on the curve, on the bell curve, relative to who we are. Like I said, there are several kinds of sacrifices, I think total of seven different kinds of sacrifices. And they’re all listed here in the book of Leviticus in our portion, which ends in chapter eight. We have several of these kinds of sacrifices. I’m not going to belabor each one and what to do with the meat and with the fat and with the kidneys and with the liver and with the entrails and with the skin and all of these things. We don’t have a temple.

The Jewish people don’t have a temple, not in Jerusalem, not in Brooklyn, or not anywhere else in the world. Our temple now is our place of prayer. And may God help us pray for each other and pray for our own selves and our families that we will learn to sacrifice, to give our lives to the Lord, in prayer, in supplications, in intercession, in charity to the poor and in donations to the Lord’s body to do the work of the Lord. Yes, all these things are principles that we can learn from the book of Leviticus.

Of the holiness, of the pureness, of the completeness, of the perfection of our gifts. God won’t have any animal that is damaged, that has a broken leg, or blind in one eye. No, you have to have a perfect gift to God. That’s true also today, dear brothers and sisters. The gifts we give, whether it’s time, money, talent, to the Lord, charity to the poor, also have to be perfect with a pure heart. If not, it becomes an abomination. May God help us to offer the best that we have for God, for Yeshua, for Jesus, for His kingdom, and for His people. In His name, I pray that we will do our best, always our best, for the Lord who loved us so much that He sent His only begotten son so that we don’t perish, but that we have everlasting life. In Yeshua’s name, God bless all of you. Shalom from Jerusalem.